THE WINDOW 101deliberately in his chair and looked out of the windowand said, all in a jerk, very rudely, it would be toorough for her to-morrow. She would be sick.

It annoyed him that she should have made himspeak like that, with Mrs Ramsay listening. If onlyhe could be alone in his room working, he thought,among his books. That was where he felt at his ease.And he had never run a penny into debt; he hadnever cost his father a penny since he was fifteen; hehad helped them at home out of his savings; he waseducating his sister. Still, he wished he had knownhow to answer Miss Briscoe properly; he wished ithad not come out all in a jerk like that. ‘You’d besick.' He wished he could think of something to sayto Mrs Ramsay, something which would show herthat he was not just a dry prig. That was whatthey all thought him. He turned to her. But MrsRamsay was talking about people he had neverheard of to William Bankes.

'Yes, take it away,’ she said briefly, interruptingwhat she was saying to Mr Bankes to speak to themaid. ‘It must have been fifteen—no, twenty yearsago—that I last saw her,’ she was saying, turningback to him again as if she could not lose a momentof their talk, for she was absorbed by what they weresaying. So he had actually heard from her thisevening! And was Carrie still living at Marlow,and was everything still the same? Oh she couldremember it as if it were yesterday—going on theriver, feeling very cold. But if the Mannings madea plan they stuck to it. Never should she forgetHerbert killing a wasp with a teaspoon on the bank!And it was still going on, Mrs Ramsay mused, gliding
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