THE WINDOW

the wind raised them. For it was windy (she

stood a moment to look out). It was windy, so

that the leaves now and then brushed open a star,

and the stars themselves seemed to be shaking

and darting light and trying to flash out between

the edges of the leaves. Yes, that was done then,

accomplished; and as with all things done,

become solemn. Now one thought of it, cleared

of chatter and emotion, it seemed always to have

been, only was shown now, and so being shown

struck everything into stability. They would,

she thought, going on again, however long they

lived, come back to this night; this moon; this

wind; this house: and to her too. It flattered her,

where she was most susceptible of flattery, to

think how, wound about in their hearts, however

long they lived she would be woven; and this,

and this, and this, she thought, going upstairs,

laughing, but affectionately, at the sofa on the

landing (her mother's) at the rocking-chair (her

father's); at the map of the Hebrides. All that

would be revived again in the lives of Paul and

Minta; " the Rayleys "—she tried the new name

over; and she felt, with her hand on the nursery

door, that community of feeling with other people

which emotion gives as if the walls of partition had

become so thin that practically (the feeling was one

of relief and happiness) it was all one stream, and

- -175