out of guilt; out of fear of being alone; out of patriotism." —Laura reflects on the complex reasons she married Dan, p. 106, 1999, 4th Estate paperback edition. "The question has been silently asked and silently answered, it seems. They are both afflicted and blessed, full of shared secrets, striving every moment. They are both impersonating someone. They are weary and beleaguered; they have taken on such enormous work." —Laura and Kitty embrace in the kitchen, p. 110, 1999, 4th Estate paperback edition. Mrs. Woolf As Virginia helps Leonard and Ralph with the printing press, a servant announces Virginia's sister has arrived. Vanessa, Virginia's sister, is one-and-a-half hours early. Leonard refuses to stop working, so Virginia attends to Vanessa alone. At this time, the viewer realizes her mental problems create fear for the maids. Virginia and Vanessa go out into the garden where Vanessa's children found a dying bird. Vanessa, mirroring the character of Kitty in the Mrs Brown vignettes, has an effortless competence with life's details, be it servants or children; this highlights Virginia's awkwardness with her lot in life. Virginia believes, as she watches Vanessa's children, that the real accomplishment in life is not her "experiments in the narrative" but the producing of children, which Vanessa achieved. Virginia is out of place in such a society. The bird the children found has died, and the children, assisted by the adults, hold a funeral for it. Virginia is aware that she and the little girl are far more invested in the funeral than Vanessa's boys, who are probably laughing at the females behind their backs. As Virginia stares longingly at the dead bird she has an epiphany: her character, Clarissa Dalloway, is not like Virginia, and would not commit suicide. Like the bird's funeral bed, Clarissa represents -to Virginia- an uncaring, even foolish thing. As such, Clarissa will represent the death bed (the counterpoint) to the character who Virginia will have commit suicide. "Virginia looks with unanticipated pleasure at this modest circlet of thorns and flowers; this wild deathbed. She would like to lie down on it herself." —A bird's funeral suddenly becomes the occasion for Virginia to ponder her death wish, p. 119, 1999, 4th Estate paperback edition. "Virginia lingers another moment beside the dead bird in its circle of roses. It could be a kind of hat. It could be the missing link between millinery and death."