Читать книгу На маяк. Уровень 3 / To the Lighthouse - Вирджиния Вулф - Страница 17

Well then, Nancy had gone with them, Mrs. Ramsay supposed.

Of course, they could not all be drowned. And again she felt alone in the presence of her old antagonist, life.

Jasper and Rose said that Mildred wanted to know whether she should wait dinner[25].

“Not for the Queen of England,” said Mrs. Ramsay emphatically.

“Not for the Empress of Mexico,” she added.

And if Rose liked, she said, she might choose which jewels she would wear. When there are fifteen people sitting down to dinner, one cannot wait for ever. She felt annoyed with them for being so late. It was inconsiderate of them. It annoyed her greatly.

Jasper offered her an opal necklace; Rose a gold necklace. Which looked best against her black dress? While the children rummaged among her things, she looked out of the window. The rooks were trying to decide which tree to settle on. Every time, they changed their minds and rose up into the air again. The old rook, the father rook, was a disreputable old bird. He was like an old gentleman in a top hat[26] who was playing the horn in the public house.

“Look!” she said and laughed.

The rooks were fighting. The air was shoved aside by their black wings. But what to choose? The gold necklace, which was Italian, or the opal necklace, which Uncle James had brought her from India? Or maybe her amethysts?

“Choose, dearests, choose,” she said.

She let Rose take up this and then that, and hold her jewels against the black dress. Rose liked this little ceremony, she knew. What was the reason, Mrs. Ramsay wondered. And Rose will grow up; and Rose will suffer with these deep feelings. She said she was ready now, and they were ready to go down. Jasper, because he is the gentleman, will give her his arm. Rose, as she is the lady, will carry her handkerchief (she gave her the handkerchief), and what else? Oh, yes, it may be cold: a shawl.