Mrs Dalloway (Oxford World’s Classics) by Woolf Virginia

Author:Woolf, Virginia
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2008-04-17T00:00:00+00:00

But why should she invite all the dull women in London to her parties? Why should Mrs Marsham interfere? And there was Elizabeth closeted all this time with Doris Kilman. Anything more nauseating she could not conceive. Prayer at this hour with that woman. And the sound of the bell flooded the room with its melancholy wave; which receded, and gathered itself together to fall once more, when she heard, distractingly, something fumbling, something scratching at the door. Who at this hour? Three, good Heavens! Three already! For with overpowering directness and dignity the clock struck three; and she heard nothing else; but the door handle slipped round and in came Richard! What a surprise! In came Richard, holding out flowers. She had failed him, once at Constantinople; and Lady Bruton, whose lunch parties were said to be extraordinarily amusing, had not asked her. He was holding out flowers—roses, red and white roses. (But he could not bring himself to say he loved her; not in so many words.)

But how lovely, she said, taking his flowers. She understood; she understood without his speaking; his Clarissa. She put them in vases on the mantelpiece. How lovely they looked, she said. And was it amusing, she asked? Had Lady Bruton asked after her? Peter Walsh was back. Mrs Marsham had written. Must she ask Ellie Henderson? That woman Kilman was upstairs.

‘But let us sit down for five minutes,’ said Richard.

It all looked so empty. All the chairs were against the wall. What had they been doing? Oh, it was for the party; no, he had not forgotten the party. Peter Walsh was back. Oh yes, she had had him. And he was going to get a divorce; and he was in love with some woman out there. And he hadn’t changed in the slightest. There she was, mending her dress . . .

‘Thinking of Bourton,’ she said.

‘Hugh was at lunch,’ said Richard. She had met him too! Well, he was getting absolutely intolerable. Buying Evelyn necklaces; fatter than ever; an intolerable ass.

‘And it came over me “I might have married you”,’ she said, thinking of Peter sitting there in his little bow-tie; with that knife, opening it, shutting it. ‘Just as he always was, you know.’

They were talking about him at lunch, said Richard. (But he could not tell her he loved her. He held her hand. Happiness is this, he thought.) They had been writing a letter to The Times for Millicent Bruton. That was about all Hugh was fit for.

‘And our dear Miss Kilman?’ he asked. Clarissa thought the roses absolutely lovely; first bunched together; now of their own accord starting apart.

‘Kilman arrives just as we’ve done lunch,’ she said. ‘Elizabeth turns pink. They shut themselves up. I suppose they’re praying.’

Lord! He didn’t like it; but these things pass over if you let them.

‘In a mackintosh with an umbrella,’ said Clarissa.

He had not said ‘I love you’; but he held her hand. Happiness is this, is this, he thought.

‘But why should I ask all the dull women in London to my parties?’ said Clarissa.

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