To the Lighthouse: Time Passes, 4 Summary & Analysis

The “stray airs” enter the packed-up house and meet no resistance to their “nibbling” at the things people left behind: furniture, dishware, old clothes, etc. Light on the bedroom wall is “a flower reflected in water.” “Loveliness and stillness clasped hands” and together make “the shape of loveliness itself, a form from which life had parted.” It is serenely undisturbed by the questions asked again and again by the stray airs (“’Will you fade? Will you perish?’”). The peace is only broken very rarely, as when a board creaks, or a fold of the shawl loosens. Then, Mrs. McNab tears “the veil of silence” when she comes to clean the house.