She pierced the pincushion

and laid her feathered yellow hat on the bed.

Aunt Helena never liked discussion of
anything. (When Sally gave her William
Morris, it had to be wrapped in brown
paper.)

Sally went out, picked hollyhocks,
dahlias - all sorts of flowers that
had never been seen together --

cut their heads off

and made them swim on the top of water in bowls.

The effect was extraordinary coming into dinner in the sunset

Of course thought it wicked to treat flowers like that.

Sally said to herself, as if she had known
all along that something would
interrupt, would embitter her moment of happiness.

Pamela Gay: I selected some lines scattered over a few pages of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway to make a micro-story about Sally, who knew Clarissa Dalloway when they were both coming-of-age. I "framed" the lines to draw attention to the text and to help readers/viewers think about text as image. Frames 1 and 2 (these quotations) are actually in reference to two movements of Clarissa Dalloway and Frame 9, a thought of Clarissa's. But I transfer them to Sally. I imagine Sally piercing the pincushion; wearing a yellow-feathered hat; and exclaiming "Oh Horror," in the end--not liking her "moment of being" (of happiness, delight) interrupted. The vignette title comes from words spoken by Sally's Aunt Helena in Woolf's text. Frame-page correspondence as follows: frames 1 & 2(33); frame 3(35); frames 4-8(36); frame 9(38). Everyman's Library Edition.