TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

We might all sit down and cry, she felt. But she
did not know what for.

They drew ahead together, Paul and Minta,

and he comforted her, and said how famous he was

for finding things. Once when he was a little boy

he had found a gold watch. He would get up at

daybreak and he was positive he would find it. It

seemed to him that it would be almost dark, and

he would be alone on the beach, and somehow it

would be rather dangerous. He began telling her,

however, that he would certainly find it, and she

said that she would not hear of his getting up at

dawn: it was lost: she knew that: she had had

a presentiment when she put it on that afternoon.

And secretly he resolved that he would not tell her,

but he would slip out of the house at dawn when

they were all asleep and if he could not find it he

would go to Edinburgh and buy her another, just

like it but more beautiful. He would prove what

he could do. And as they came out on the hill

and saw the lights of the town beneath them, the

lights coming out suddenly one by one seemed

like things that were going to happen to him—his

marriage, his children, his house; and again he

thought, as they came out on to the high road,

which was shaded with high bushes, how they

would retreat into solitude together, and walk on

and on, he always leading her, and she pressing

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