The Voyage Out

beat; and Helen, poking her nose above deck, saw a stationary castle upon a stationary hill. They had dropped anchor in the mouth

brown leather case, shouting over his shoulder that every one was to mind and behave th

im through such a morning's work as seldom came his way; then treated him to a lunch of champagne and ortolans; paid a call upon Mrs. Jackson, who was fatter than ever, poor woman, but asked kindly after Rachel-and O Lord, little Jackson had confessed to a confounded piece of weakness-well, well, no harm was done, he supposed, but wha

peer, they can have what they like for the asking. They got round poor little Jackson anyhow. Said they must have passages-produced a letter from Lord Glenaway,

r other Willoughby was quite pleased to s

ew to broadening Mr. Dalloway's mind. Unable for a season, by one of the accidents of political life, to serve his country in Parliament, Mr. Dalloway was do

a small bird which some ruffian had trapped, "because one hates to think of anything in a cage where English people lie buried," the diary stated. Their tour was thoroughly unconventional, and followed no meditated plan. The foreign correspondents of the Times decided their route as much as anything else. Mr. Dalloway wished to look at certain guns, and was of opinion that the African coast is far more unsettled than people at home were inclined to believe. For these reasons they wanted a slow inquisitive kind of ship, comfortable, for they were bad sailors, but not extravagant, which would stop for a day or two at this port and at that, taking in coal while the Dalloways saw things for themselves. Meanwhile they found themselves stranded in Lisbon, unable for the moment to lay hands upon the precise vessel they wanted. They heard of the Euphrosyne, but heard also that she was primarily a cargo boat, and only took passengers by special arrangement, her business being to carry dry goods to the Amazons, and rubber home again. "By special arrangement," however, were words of high encouragement to them, for they came of

k Rachel by the hand, and Rachel had only time to look at the grey hills on one si

it, from Mr. Grice, the steward, to Ridley himself. A few minutes later Rachel passed the smoking-room, and fou

l to the good. Arm-chairs are the important things-" She began wheelin

table. The appearance of the p

itting on the edge of her berth in such a position that the little glass above the washstand reflected her head and shoulders. In the glass she wore an expression of tense me

ressed on her, and whatever face

n sketching to the Dalloways the people they we

), his wife, my old friend Pepper, a very quiet fellow, but knows everything, I'm

he was made slightly uneasy by what she had heard. She knew that scholars married any one-girls they met in farms on

ic in appearance, she was not untidy, held herself well, and her voice had restraint in it, whi

erself as she followed Vinrace in to d

nce, chiefly because of Ridley, who came in late, looked

at they grasped the situation and would stand by each other loyally

there are no flowers in it. Imagine fields of h

r crossing in the Mauretania once, and saying to the Captain-Richards-did you know him?-'Now tell me what perils you really dread most for your ship, Captain Richards?' expecting him to

and was about to put a quest

it-those captains! Three

'm convinced people are wrong when they say it's work that wears one; it's resp

t to pay one's nurse double;

s, instead of saucepans!" said Mrs. Dalloway, look

urse," said Helen. "Nothing would i

ld is no responsibility. I've travelled all over Europe wi

Mrs. Dalloway exclaim

just the same. And then one tal

?" said M

ad to pass an irate lady every afternoon las

plucked up courage and said to her, 'My good creature, you're only in the wa

oat, and would have scratched his

d. "No, I pity them, I confess. The discomf

ght," said Wil

and futility of such behaviour more than I do; and as for the whole agitation, well! m

husband's assertion

"Don't tell me you're a suff

any creature is so deluded as to think that a vote does him

olitician, I se

, no," sa

said Dalloway aside, to Mrs. Ambrose. She sudde

her dull?" she asked, not k

him, as if inscriptions were t

u ask me what career do you consider on the whole, taking the good with the bad, the most enjoyable and envia

ee," said Willoughby. "You

bout poets and artists in general is this: on your own lines, you can't be beaten-granted; but off your own li

lloway. "Think of Shelley. I feel that there

ut whenever I hear of Shelley I repeat to myself th

tion. "Matthew Arnold? A d

arts) "a gross commonplace set of people; but we see both sides; we may be clumsy, but we do our best to get a grasp of things. Now your artists find things in a mess, shrug their shoulders, turn

ng beautiful, and then I go out into the streets and the first child I meet with its poor, hungry, dirty little face makes me turn round and say, 'No, I can't shut myself up-I won't live in a world of my own. I should like to stop al

a little shiver, and asked whether she might have her fur cloak brought to h

r since. Don't you think it's quite the most modern thing you ever saw?" she asked Ridley. "It seemed to me I'd know

Pepper

δειν?,

ειν?τερο

α? πολι

χειμε

περιβ

?π?

oked at him with

y life to know Greek," s

," said Ridley, "and you'd read Homer in a mont

in the House of Commons, noted, in the great commonplace book that lies open beside us as

wing-room in Browne Street with a Plato open on her knees-Plato in the original Greek. She could not help bel

ed her to co

by into play. For the sake of guests, and these were distinguished, Willoughby w

d my husband's not very

sea, I confess, or still worse, a swell, makes me distinctly uncomfortable. The great thing is never to miss a meal. You look at the food, and you say, 'I

ir chairs. The ladies were

the way," said

Reynolds or a Romney. She made Helen and the others look coarse and slovenly beside her. Sitting lightly upright she seemed to be dealing with the world as she chose; the enormous solid globe spun round this way and that beneath her fingers. And her husband! Mr. Dalloway rolling that rich deliberate voice was even more impressive. He seemed to come from the humming oily centre of the machine where the polished rods are sliding, and the pistons thumping; he grasped things so firmly

id Helen, opening th

Mrs. Ambrose, taking up the score

Helen, laying her hand

first time. "D'you remember this? Isn't it divine?" Sh

and Isolde-oh!-it's all too thri

uffy high frocks, and then the dark theatre, and the music beginning, and one couldn't help sobbing. A kind man went and fetched me water, I remember; and I could only c

ut in the moonlight and listen to music-only that sounds too like a schoolgirl! You know," s

a strain?"

e kind of attitudes people go into over Wagner-like this-" She cast her eyes to the ceiling, clasped her hands, and assumed a look of intensity. "It really doesn't mean that they appr

en him," s

ssful stockbroker, and not one of the great

sful stockbrokers, if you like

tly that her aunt wou

stinctively that he's bad?" Clarissa asked, turning to Rac

curls!" said Helen. "The question is, are

Clarissa, "I do want

really mean well-cut

gentleman by," said Clarissa,

now, does he look

taste. "One of the things that can't be said," she wo

g to Rachel, "I shall insist upo

her manner that ma

iny yawn, a mere dila

traordinarily sleepy. It's the

Mr. Pepper, strident in discussion, and ad

said. "Oh, I know my way-do

merable frills, and wrapping her feet in a rug, sat down with a writing-pad on her knee. Already this cramped little cabin was the dressing room of a lady of quality. There were bottles containing liquids; there were trays, boxes, brushes, pins. Evidently not an inch of h

, these people-a man and his wife and a niece-might have been, one feels, just like everybody else, if they hadn't got swallowed up by Oxford or Cambridge or some such place, and been made cranks of. The man's really delightful (if he'd cut his nails), and the woman has quite a fine face, only she dresses, of course, in a potato sack, and wears her hair like a Liberty shopgirl's. They talk about art, and think us such poops for dressing in the evening. However, I can't help that; I'd rather die than come in to dinner without changing-wouldn't you? It matters ever so much more than the soup. (It's odd how things like that do matter so much more than what's generally supposed to matter. I'd rather have my head cut off than wear flannel next the skin.) Then there's

d, almost filling the roo

at dinner!" c

lf in for the Gree

ar! Who is

mbridge don; lives in Lond

ks? The woman asked me if I thought

ertainly," said Richard. "Why is it that the women

ad-looking, really-

same things, so that there was no

hard. "He knows Sutton and all that set. He can tell me a go

n always are so much

nly," said Richard. "But I've no doubt you'll ch

en? She doesn't loo

boy an

hot through Mrs.

e a son, Dic

said Dalloway, for his talk had set him thinking. "I don't su

yours!" sa

rd soliloquised. "It's a fine

y curved beneat

English. One thinks of all we've done, and our navies, and the people in India and Africa, and how we've gone on century after century, sending out boys from little country villages-and of men like you

Law Law had come over him while his wife spoke. He ran his mind along the line of conservative policy, which went steadily from Lord Sal

ve pretty nearly done it," he sa

don't see it!" C

d her husband. "There would never be a go

sa. "You see round, where I only see there."

s, as I tried to e

ontinued, "is that you're always the

, anyhow," he said, gazin

o, do you? T

lf-written letter slid to the ground. Pick

said; and added in hi

elf to learn the Greek alphabet. I will take this occasion of adding that we are both enjoying ourselves in these outlandish parts, and only

William Pepper was remarking in his definite and rather acid voice, "That i

verdict, for directly it seemed likely that they

a sleep, which was as usual extremely sound and refreshing, but visited by fantastic dreams of great Greek letters stalking round the room, when she woke up and laughed to herself, remembering where she was and that the Greek letters were real people, lying asleep not many yards away. Then, thinking of the black sea outside tossing beneath the moon, she shuddered, and thought of her husband and th