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TO THE LIGHTHOUSEafternoons trapesing about the country alone—forAndrew would be off after his crabs—but possiblyNancy was with them. She tried to recall the sightof them standing at the hall door after lunch. Therethey stood, looking at the sky, wondering aboutthe weather, and she had said, thinking partly tocover their shyness, partly to encourage them to beoff (for her sympathies were with Paul),

"There isn’t a cloud anywhere within miles," atwhich she could feel little Charles Tansley, who hadfollowed them out, snigger. But she did it on pur-pose. Whether Nancy was there or not, she couldnot be certain, looking from one to the other in hermind’s eye.

She read on: "Ah, wife," said the man, "whyshould we be King? I do not want to be King.""Well," said the wife, "if you won’t be King, I will;go to the Flounder, for I will be King."

"Come in or go out, Cam," she said, knowingthat Cam was attracted only by the word "Floun-der" and that in a moment she would fidget andfight with James as usual. Cam shot off. Mrs.Ramsay went on reading, relieved, for she andJames shared the same tastes and were comfortabletogether.

"And when he came to the sea, it was quitedark grey, and the water heaved up from below,86