TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

~->x

made the dresses; made everything; liked best
arranging tables, flowers, anything. She did not
like it that Jasper should shoot birds; but it was
only a stage; they all went through stages. Why,
she asked, pressing her chin on James's head,
should they grow up so fast? Why should they
go to school? She would have liked always to
have had a baby. She was happiest carrying one
in her arms. Then people might say she was
tyrannical, domineering, masterful, if they chose;
she did not mind. And, touching his hair with
her lips, she thought, he will never be so happy
again, but stopped herself, remembering how ft
angered her husband that she should say that.
Still, it was true. They were happier now than
they would ever be again. A tenpenny tea set"
made Cam happy for days. She heard them
stamping and crowing on the floor above her head
the moment they woke. They came bustling
along the passage. Then the door sprang open
and in they came, fresh as roses, staring, wide
awake, as if this coming into the dining-room
after breakfast, which they did every day of their
lives was a positive event to them; and so on, with
one thing after another, all day long, until she
went up to say good-night to them, and found
them netted in their cots like birds among cherries
and raspberries still making up stories about some
94