Mrs. Dalloway 13

• "She had gone. Mrs. Kilman sat at the marble table among the eclairs, stricken once, twice, thrice, by shocks of suffering. She had gone. Mrs. Dalloway had triumphed. Elizabeth had gone. Beauty had gone, youth had gone." (p. 133)
  

At this point in the novel, Mrs. Kilman and Elizabeth sit down to have tea, but eventually Elizabeth gets up and leaves. The relationship between Mrs. Kilman and Elizabeth is rather strange, as it appears Mrs. Kilman has a lesbian attraction to the young girl. Obviously Mrs. Dalloway isn't comfortable knowing this, hence the reason why Woolf describes Clarissa's enjoyment ("Mrs. Dalloway had triumphed") knowing Elizabeth feels discomfort too. Mrs. Kilman is very upset because Elizabeth's sudden decision of leaving shows rejection or disapproval of Mrs. Kilman's feelings towards her. It is ironic that Woolf writes the line "beauty had gone" because the rest of the characters in the novel are suddenly noticing Elizabeth's beauty and beginning to notice how attractive she is. Mrs. Kilman also experiences a sense of defeat as she feels that Elizabeth leaving is a direct indication that she has chosen to follow the lifestyle her mother leads, rather than her own.