THE   WINDOW
vanishing even as she looked, and then, as she
moved and took Minta's arm and left the room,
it changed, it shaped itself differently; it had
become, she knew, giving one last look at it over
her shoulder, already the past.
18
As usual, Lily thought. There was always
something that had to be done at that precise
moment, something that Mrs. Ramsay had
decided for reasons of her own to do instantly, it
might be with every one standing about making
jokes, as now, not being able to decide whether
they were going into the smoking-room, into the
drawing-room, up to the attics. Then one saw
Mrs. Ramsay in the midst of this hubbub standing
there with Minta's arm in hers, bethink her
" Yes, it is time for that now," and so make off
at once with an air of secrecy to do something
alone. And directly she went a sort of disin-
tegration set in; they wavered about, went
different ways, Mr. Bankes took Charles Tansley
by the arm and went off to finish on the terrace
the discussion they had begun at dinner about
politics, thus giving a turn to the whole poise of
the evening, making the weight fall in a different
direction, as if, Lily thought, seeing them go, and
hearing a word or two about the policy of the
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