, statesmen, editors, philanthropists, merchants, and
actresses; what clubs they belonged to, where they lived, what games
they played, and how many acres they owned.

She became absorbed in the book.

Helen meanwhile stitched at her embroidery and thought over the things
they had said. Her conclusion was that she would very much like to show
her niece, if it were possible, how to live, or as she put it, how to be
a reasonable person. She thought that there must be something wrong in
this confusion between politics and kissing politicians, and that an
elder person ought to be able to help.

"I quite agree," she said, "that people are very interesting; only--"
Rachel, putting her finger between the pages, looked up enquiringly.

"Only I think you ought to discriminate," she ended. "It's a pity to
be intimate with people who are--well, rather second-rate, like the
Dalloways, and to find it out later."

"But how does one know?" Rachel asked.

"I really can't tell you," replied Helen candidly, after a moment's
thought. "You'll have to find out for yourself. But try and--Why don't
you call me Helen?" she added. "'Aunt's' a horrid name. I never liked my
Aunts."

"I should like to call you Helen," Rachel answered.

"D'you think me very unsympathetic?"

Rachel reviewed the points which Helen had certainly failed to
understand; they arose chiefly from the difference of nearly twenty
years in age between them, which made Mrs. Ambrose appear too humorous
and cool in a matter of such moment.

"No," she said. "Some things you don't understand, of course."

"Of course," Helen agreed. "So now you can go ahead and be a person on
your own account," she added.

The vision of her own personality, of herself as a real everlasting
thing, different from anything else, unmergeable, like the sea or the
wind, flashed into Rachel's mind, and she became profoundly excited at
the thought of living.

"I can by m-m-myself," she stammered, "in spite of you, in spite of the
Dalloways, and Mr. Pepper, and Father, and my Aunts, in spite of these?"
She swept her hand across a whole page of statesmen and soldiers.

"In spite of them all," said Helen gravely. She then put down her
needle, and explained a plan which had come into her head as they
talked. Instead of wandering on down the Amazons until she reached some
sulphurous tropical port, where one had to lie within doors all day
beating off insects with a fan, the sensible thing to do