Discussion Question 10 **SPOILERS**

10. As he leaves Regent's Park, Peter sees and hears "a tall quivering shape,... a battered woman" singing of love and death: "the voice of an ancient spring spouting from the earth" singing "the ancient song." What is Peter's reaction and what significance does the battered woman and her ancient song have for the novel as a whole?

That is the part of the story that I would like someone to explain to me as the book was very vague and the scene left me more confused than anything else. I get the picture of the poor women singing for her supper (if that is correct) but alluding to times well past, a little confused.

I thought that this part of the story was interesting, too. I thought that Peter connected better with the regular people than the society people. And his connection to this person showed that.
--BJ

To me it was proof that Richard had depths not otherwise visible in his second-rate mind's world. It was a way of Woolf giving him some dignity after condemning him to the quotidian world of the average.