When the readers finally meet Miss Kilman, though Mrs. Dalloway is afraid that her daughter, Elizabeth, is in love with her, surprisingly, it turns out Elizabeth loathes and pities her. Elizabeth’s relationship with Miss Kilman is somewhat convoluted and strange. When the reader is looking through Elizabeth’s perspective, we sees that Elizabeth is intrigued by Miss Kilman, pondering what the woman could be thinking, though also put off by her. It seems like Elizabeth is interested, really, not in Miss Kilman herself, but how Miss Kilman functions and thinks. On the other hand, Miss Kilman is obsessed with Elizabeth, seeing her as “beauty” and “youth”. During the meeting we see not only the current dialogue between them, but past dialogue and internal thoughts of each other.

Elizabeth seems to be friends with Miss Kilman because, although she seems to despise her, Miss Kilman represents the opposite of what Mrs. Dalloway seems to be to Elizabeth, “what interested Miss Kilman bored her mother… Miss Kilman was frightfully clever.” (131) Not only that, but Miss Kilman represents what Elizabeth may be ignorant of or look over: “Elizabeth never thought about the poor.” (131) Miss Kilman is so intriguing to Elizabeth because Elizabeth does not understand her and provides a very different view of the world and society—Elizabeth is almost using her as a pessimistic foil to herself to see her world differently. As Miss Kilman see Elizabeth as the epitome of beauty and youth, Miss Kilman could be seen as the epitome of ugliness and wasting away, always so pessimistic and being possessive of beauty and youth, latching on to it.