TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

" There isn't a cloud anywhere within miles/*
at which she could feel little Charles Tansley, who
had followed them out, snigger. But she did it on
purpose. Whether Nancy was there or not, she
could not be certain, looking from one to the other
in her mind's eye.

She read on: " Ah, wife/' said the man, " why
should we be king? I do not want to be King."
" Well," said the wife, " if you won't be King, I
will; go to the Flounder, for I will be King."

" Come in or go out, Cam," she said, knowing
that Cam was attracted only by the word
" Flounder " and that in a moment she would
fidget and fight with James as usual. Cam shot
off. Mrs. Ramsay went on reading, relieved, for
she and James shared the same tastes and were
comfortable together.

" And when he came to the sea, it was quite
dark grey, and the water heaved up from below,
and smelt putrid. Then he went and stood by it
and said,

' Flounder, flounder, in the sea,
Come, I pra/ thee, here to me;
For my wife, good Usabil,
Wills not as I'd have her will.'

* Well, what does she want then?' said the
Flounder." And where were they now? Mrs.
Ramsay wondered, reading and thinking, quite
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