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TO THE LIGHTHOUSEhim that it would be almost dark, and he would bealone on the beach, and somehow it would be ratherdangerous. He began telling her, however, that hewould certainly find it, and she said that she wouldnot hear of his getting up at dawn: it was lost: sheknew that: she had had a presentiment when she putit on that afternoon. And secretly he resolved thathe would not tell her, but he would slip out of thehouse at dawn when they were all asleep and if hecould not find it he would go to Edinburgh andbuy her another, just like it but more beautiful.He would prove what he could do. And as theycame out on the hill and saw the lights of the townbeneath them, the lights coming out suddenly oneby one seemed like things that were going to happento him—his marriage, his children, his house; andagain he thought, as they came out on to the highroad, which was shaded with high bushes, how theywould retreat into solitude together, and walk onand on, he always leading her, and she pressing closeto his side (as she did now). As they turned by thecross roads he thought what an appalling experiencehe had been through, and he must tell some one—Mrs. Ramsay of course, for it took his breath awayto think what he had been and done. It had beenfar and away the worst moment of his life when heasked Minta to marry him. He would go straightto Mrs. Ramsay, because he felt somehow that she118