THE WINDOW

" And even if it isn't fine to-morrow," said
Mrs. Ramsay, raising her eyes to glance at
William Bankes and Lily Briscoe as they passed,
" it will be another day. And now," she said,
thinking that Lily's charm was her Chinese eyes,
aslant in her white, puckered little face, but it
would take a clever man to see it, " and now stand
up, and let me measure your leg," for they might
go to the Lighthouse after all, and she must see
if the stocking did not need to be an inch or two
longer in the leg.

Smiling, for an admirable idea had flashed
upon her this very second—William and Lily
should marry—she took the heather mixture
stocking, with its criss-cross of steel needles
at the mouth of it, and measured it against
James's leg.

" My dear, stand still/' she said, for in his
jealousy, not liking to serve as measuring-block
for the Lighthouse keeper's little boy, James
fidgeted purposely; and if he did that, how could
she see, was it too long, was it too short ? she
asked.

She looked up—what demon possessed him,
her youngest, her cherished?—and saw the room,