The Voyage Out

ip for the second time, she ran straight into the lean person of Mr. Grice, the steward. She apologised, and at the same time asked him to enlighten her: what

a sailor must be the fi

ange manner. "Pardon me. What does any man or woman brought up in

realise, to begin with, what a very small part of the world the land was? How peaceful, how beautiful, how benignant in comparison the sea? The deep waters could sustain Europe unaided if every earthly animal died of the plague to-morrow. Mr. Grice recalled dreadful sights which he had seen in the richest ci

sures which the great ocean had bestowed upon him-pale fish in greenish liquids, blob

bout among bones,

, and taking down a copy from a shelf well lined

m five thy

kespeare," he said,

so glad to he

te play? I wonder if i

Fifth," sai

ed Clariss

favourite reading was Huxley, Herbert Spencer, and Henry George; while Emerson and Thomas Hardy he read for relaxation. He was giving Mrs. Dalloway his views up

round the table, still under the influence of sleep, and therefore uncommunicat

xclaimed, taking her seat beside Willoughby. "D'you re

ways say," said Willoughby, distinguishing

said Rachel. Her eyes were full of sleep, bu

t a bore yet!"

imed Helen. But her beauty, which was radiant in the

e would be a murderer than a bore!" she added, with her usual air of saying something profound. "

d appearance-his well-cut clothes, his crackling shirt-front, his cuffs with blue rings round them,

e sofas I should say. Well, we had another dog at the same time, a black brisk animal-a Schipperke, I think, you call them. You can't imagine a greater contrast. The Skye so slow and deliberate, looking up at yo

eemed to ha

ed to him?"

voice and peeling an apple. "He followed my wife in th

lled?" ask

er end of the tab

ed. "It's a thing I can't b

tears stood

ber was for the death of a dormouse. I regret to say that I sat upon it. Still, that didn't make

nued, "a pair of ring-doves, a l

the country?" R

we' I mean four sisters, a brother, and myself. There's nothing l

ly spoilt!" cried Clar

reciated," s

one enormous question, which she did not in the least know ho

t seemed to her incredible that a man like that should be willing to talk to her. He had sisters and pets, and once lived in the coun

of voice, "I'm sure Miss Vinrace, now, has secret leanings towards Catholicism," she

eetles," she said, summing up the discussion as she went up the stairs with Helen. "One person has a p

's my childre

d. "Do tell me. You have a boy, haven't

and Purcell-the pages yellow, the engraving rough to the finger. In three minutes she was deep in a very difficult, very classical fugue in A, and over her face came a queer remote impersonal expression of complete absorption and anxious satisfaction. Now she stumbled; now she faltered and had to play the same bar twice over; but an invisible line seemed to string the notes together, from which rose a shape, a building.

implored. "I heard you playing, a

ed her fingers in her la

difficult,

ite splendidly! I ought

said R

ng Heights out of the arm-chair, so t

looking round. "Oh, Cowper's Letters!

ull," sai

nces and all that. Wuthering Heights! Ah-that's more in my line. I really couldn't exist without the Br

her manner conveyed an extraordinary d

on't like Jane Au

claimed. "I can only just

hat you mean. But I don't agree. And you won't when you're older. At your

red the shado

and hate and pa

not and tort

ion of the worl

after column all his days, and trotting back to his villa at Brixton with some old pug dog he worships, and a dreary little wife sitting at the end of the table, and going off to Margate for a fortn

d Rachel's

she went o

h men misca

happy. I sometimes think that happiness is the only thing that counts. I don't know you well enough to say, but I should guess you might be a little inclined t

ed. "You interest me so much. If I'm i

d Rachel with such earnestness that

lk?" she said. "The

cehorse as they shut the

?" she exclaimed, and drew

ok! How e

at distance. They could distinguish the little towns that were sprinkled in the folds of the hills, and the smo

aving looked, "I don't like views. T

ever met. I was packing in a stuffy little room in the hotel. We know a

n-your husband wa

een to school,

aunts at

chm

like the Park. Th

I understand!" C

ark alone; but not-with

said Clarissa, as if she had guessed a secr

," said Rachel

Clarissa: "and thinking-in a little world of

what you mean?" said Rachel, regarding M

man particularly," said

ver marry," Rac

Her sidelong glance told Rachel that she found he

le marry?" R

going to find out,

e of Richard Dalloway, who was engaged in striking a match on the sole of his boot; w

uded. "Do tell me about the Ambroses

sy to talk to,

r, somewhat perfunctory, and contained littl

ther's b

use, the lightest touch upon

like your

different,"

. Dalloway things she had never told any one-thin

not know what she wanted, so that she could

Dalloway was able to u

es rested upon Mr. Dalloway, leaning upon the rail, still talking. "Don't think I say that because I'm his wife-I see his faults more clearly than I see any one else's. What one wants in the person one li

upon the waves, and Mrs. Dalloway's hand upon her arm, it seemed indeed as if lif

ited, was amused, but at the same time slightly irritated. But they were immediately joined b

weather by appropriate headdress? I have determined that it is a hot summer day; I warn you that nothing you can say will sh

Richard surv

s you ought to have a river; if a river, hills. The best view in the world in my opinion is that from Boars Hill on a fine day-it

alk, Dick, or sh

etched a book

unced Richard, exa

" said Clarissa. "She can

ot read her," said Richard. "She is incompa

ason: she does not attempt to write like a man. Every

ce," he went on, joining his finger

y tried to vindicate her sex

" said Clarissa. "He ge

less threadbare than the others-though, Dick, it's no good your pretendi

legislation, I deserve

passing over the waves, still sought the land meditatively, "or about navies

doesn't she? 'There-'" She read on in a light humorous voice. She was determined that Sir Walter should take her husband's mind off the guns of Britain, and divert him in an exquisite, quaint, sprightly, and slightly ridiculous world. After a time it appeared that the s

idley, who had prowled unheeded, started forward, stopped, and, with a gesture of disgust, strode off to his study. The sleeping politician was left in Rachel's charge. She read a sentence, and took a look at him. In sleep he looked like a coat hanging at the

nd his eyes, and there curious clefts in his cheeks. Slightl

chimed behind them, and Richard raised his head. Then he opened his eyes which wore for a second the queer look of a shortsighted person's whose spectacles are lost. It took him

g," he said. "What's happe

to look at Mr. Grice's

common occurrence. And how have you improved

I've read a lin

ings to look at. I find nature very stimulating m

u were w

was a fad of my father's. He thought it broadening to the mind. I think I agree with him. I can remember-what an age ago it seems!-settling the basis of a future state w

hat you said you

ave not accomplished what I set out to accomplish-which of us does

a-gull, as though his ideal

achel, "what

ch, Miss Vinrace," sa

nted to know, and Richard was

ity of aim, of dominion, of progress. The dispe

Eng

e idea that I don't see the drawbacks-horrors-unmentionable things done in our very midst! I'm under no illusions. Few people, I

through a poor street, and always und

r I'd done what I set out to do. Well, when I consider my life, there is one fact I admit that I'm proud of; owing to me some thousands of girls in Lancashire-and many thousands to come after

ite Keats and Shelley. She liked Richard Dalloway, an

thing!" sh

lly, "and you wrong yourself, I'm sure. You play very nicely, I

r would no lo

she said. "You ought

ed mine, as I am thankful to say that in great measure I have, it is due to the fact that I have been able to come home to my wife in the evening and to find that she has spent her day in ca

, parting every day with some of the f

chel exclaimed, "ho

said Richard. "This is a

ke the chance he gave her, although to talk to a m

oing her best first to recollect and the

room, somewhere, let us sup

ad to show that he

is that she goes to her cupboard and finds a little more tea, a few lumps of sugar, or a little less tea and a newspaper. Widows all ov

ere you young Liberals fail. Conceive the world as a whole. Now for your second point; when you assert that in trying to set the house in order for the benefit of the young generation I am wasting my higher capabilities, I totally disagree with you. I can conceive no more exalted aim-to be the citizen of the Empire. Look at it in this way, Mis

longing for some one to talk to, with the image of a vast machine, such as one sees at Sou

understand each

that will make you ve

t," said

hope, to admit that; but I have never met a woman who even saw what is meant by statesmanship. I am going to ma

ting desire to be understood, u

ve; is that what you mean? In things like dust-carts, and men mending roads? You feel that

society is based upon cooperative effort. If only more people would realise th

consi

or are you a Conser

said Richard, smiling. "But there is more in common

at the time for talking probably ran short. She was haunted by absurd jumbled ideas-how, if one went back far enough, everything perhaps was intelligible; ever

n the country when you w

ichard was flattered. There could be

," he

she asked. "Or do I a

ember, where all kinds of queer things happened. Odd, what things impress children! I can remember the look of the place to this day.

" she

you-I daresay I was a difficult child to manage; but when I think what I was ready to give! No, I was more sinned against than sinning. And then I went to school, where I did very fairly well; and and then, as I say, my father sent me to both universities. . . . D'you know, Miss Vinr

"It's the way of saying thin

forty-two-what are the great facts that stand out? What were the revelations, if I m

oice; it was a word that seemed

an by that? No, of course not. I don't use the word in a conventional sense. I use it as young

lost consciousness o

aid, scarcely speaki

eleased from Mr. Grice, appreciative of all his

as bone, one closely following the other with the look of eyeless be

claimed, and stood

ck?" said

anean Fleet,"

flag. Richard raised his hat. Convuls

ad to be Engli

ke to each other naturally. At lunch the talk was all of valour and death, and the magnificent qualities of British admirals. Clarissa quoted one poet, Wi

keep sailors as to keep a Zoo, and that as for dying on a battle-field, surely it w

g why Rachel, sitting silent,