Part 3 The Lighthouse Chapter 1

    What does it mean then, what can it all mean? Lily Briscoe asked herself,wondering whether, since she had been left alone, it behoved her to go tothe kitchen to fetch another cup of coffee or wait here. What does itmean?—a catchword that was, caught up from some book, fitting herthought loosely, for she could not, this first morning with the Ramsays,contract her feelings, could only make a phrase resound¹ to cover theblankness of her mind until these vapours had shrunk. For really, whatdid she feel, come back after all these years and Mrs Ramsay dead?

　　Nothing, nothing—nothing that she could express at all.

　　She had come late last night when it was all mysterious, dark. Nowshe was awake, at her old place at the breakfast table, but alone. It wasvery early too, not yet eight. There was this expedition—they were goingto the Lighthouse, Mr Ramsay, Cam, and James. They should have gonealready—they had to catch the tide or something. And Cam was notready and James was not ready and Nancy had forgotten to order thesandwiches and Mr Ramsay had lost his temper and banged out of theroom.

　　"What's the use of going now?" he had stormed.

　　Nancy had vanished. There he was, marching up and down the terracein a rage. One seemed to hear doors slamming and voices calling all overthe house. Now Nancy burst in, and asked, looking round the room, in aqueer half dazed, half desperate way, "What does one send to the Lighthouse?"as if she were forcing herself to do what she despaired of everbeing able to do.

　　What does one send to the Lighthouse indeed! At any other time Lilycould have suggested reasonably tea, tobacco, newspapers. But thismorning everything seemed so extraordinarily² queer that a question likeNancy's—What does one send to the Lighthouse?—opened doors inone's mind that went banging and swinging to and fro and made onekeep asking, in a stupefied gape³, What does one send? What does onedo? Why is one sitting here, after all?

　　Sitting alone (for Nancy went out again) among the clean cups at thelong table, she felt cut off from other people, and able only to go onwatching, asking, wondering. The house, the place, the morning, allseemed strangers to her. She had no attachment⁴ here, she felt, no relationswith it, anything might happen, and whatever did happen, a stepoutside, a voice calling ("It's not in the cupboard; it's on the landing,"some one cried), was a question, as if the link that usually bound thingstogether had been cut, and they floated up here, down there, off, anyhow.

　　How aimless it was,, how chaotic⁵, how unreal it was, she thought,looking at her empty coffee cup. Mrs Ramsay dead; Andrew killed; Pruedead too—repeat it as she might, it roused no feeling in her. And we allget together in a house like this on a morning like this, she said, lookingout of the window. It was a beautiful still day.

1 resound   

v.回响

参考例句：

• A roar of approval resounded through the Ukrainian parliament.一片赞成声在乌克兰议会中回响。
• The soldiers' boots resounded in the street.士兵的军靴踏在地面上的声音在大街上回响。

2 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

3 gape   

v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视

参考例句：

• His secretary stopped taking notes to gape at me.他的秘书停止了记录，目瞪口呆地望着我。
• He was not the type to wander round gaping at everything like a tourist.他不是那种像个游客似的四处闲逛、对什么都好奇张望的人。

4 attachment   

n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附

参考例句：

• She has a great attachment to her sister.她十分依恋她的姐姐。
• She's on attachment to the Ministry of Defense.她现在隶属于国防部。

5 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。