What is the significance of this quote? "She had a perpetual sense, as she watched the taxi cabs, of being out, out, far out to sea and alone; she always had the feeling that it was very, very dangerous to live even one day."

At this point in the story Clarissa is on a shopping expedition when she stops to examine the ominibus in Piccadily. Here she contemplates her sense of isolation and loneliness of life in general. The sun acts as both warm comfort and oppressive heat. The sea works as a similar paradox both breathtaking and suffocating. Clarissa considers her old friend Peter and his failed youthful dreams. Clarissa too feels more isolated as she ages, a failure of her own. She is fifty-two and still afraid of life and the dangers that lurk within it.