THE WINDOWthe wind raised them. For it was windy (shestood a moment to look out). It was windy, sothat the leaves now and then brushed open a star,and the stars themselves seemed to be shakingand darting light and trying to flash out betweenthe edges of the leaves. Yes, that was done then,accomplished; and as with all things done,become solemn. Now one thought of it, clearedof chatter and emotion, it seemed always to havebeen, only was shown now, and so being shownstruck everything into stability. They would,she thought, going on again, however long theylived, come back to this night; this moon; thiswind; this house: and to her too. It flattered her,where she was most susceptible of flattery, tothink how, wound about in their hearts, howeverlong they lived she would be woven; and this,and this, and this, she thought, going upstairs,laughing, but affectionately, at the sofa on thelanding (her mother’s) at the rocking-chair (herfather’s); at the map of the Hebrides. All thatwould be revived again in the lives of Paul andMinta; "the Rayleys"—she tried the new nameover; and she felt, with her hand on the nurserydoor, that community of feeling with other peoplewhich emotion gives as if the walls of partition hadbecome so thin that practically (the feeling was oneof relief and happiness) it was all one stream, and175
