THE WINDOW

Uncle James had brought her from India; or
should she wear her amethysts?

" Choose, dearests, choose/' she said, hoping
that they would make haste.

But she let them take their time to choose:
she let Rose, particularly, take up this and then
that, and hold her jewels against the black dress,
for this little ceremony of choosing jewels, which
was gone through every night, was what Rose
liked best, she knew. She had some hidden
reason of her own for attaching great importance
to this choosing what her mother was to wear.
What was the reason, Mrs. Ramsay wondered,
standing still to let her clasp the necklace she
had chosen, divining, through her own past, some
deep, some buried, some quite speechless feeling
that one had for one's mother at Rose's age.
Like all feelings felt for oneself, Mrs. Ramsay
thought, it made one sad. It was so inadequate,
what one could give in return; and what Rose
felt was quite out of proportion to anything
she actually was. And Rose would grow up;
and Rose would suffer, she supposed, with these
deep feelings, and she said she was ready now,
and they would go down, and Jasper, because he
was the gentleman, should give her his arm, and
Rose, as she was the lady, should carry her hand-
kerchief (she gave her the handkerchief), and

127