TO THE LIGHTHOUSE

the vapour of something that had burnt itself
away. What do you want? they both wanted to
ask. They both wanted to say. Ask us anything
and we will give it you. But he did not ask them
anything. He sat and looked at the island and he
might be thinking, We perished, each alone, or
he might be thinking, I have reached it. I have
found it, but he said nothing.

Then he put on his hat.

" Bring those parcels," he said, nodding his
head at the things Nancy had done up for them
to take to the Lighthouse. " The parcels for
the Lighthouse men," he said. He rose and
stood in the bow of the boat, very straight
and tall, for all the world, James thought, as
if he were saying, " There is no God," and
Cam thought, as if he were leaping into space,
and they both rose to follow him as he sprang,
lightly like a young man, holding* his parcel,
on to the rock.

14

" He must have reached it," said Lily Briscoe
aloud, feeling suddenly completely tired out. For
the Lighthouse had become almost invisible, had
melted away into a blue haze, and the effort of
looking at it and the effort of thinking of him
318