Lay compact

[Xinfu]

p.143
-But in that one sentence lay compact, like gun powder, that his grandfather was a fisherman; [...]

I understand the inversion and that compact is an adjective, but why does that come in? How does that collocate with lay (=lie)?

[poli]

More context is needed here.

[Xinfu]

http://www.shmoop.com/to-the-lighthouse/memory-the-past-quotes-2.html

If you press F3 on the keyboard, you will find the quotes. But to me, even more context might not help, because it sounds like a sentence structure that would have sounded wrong to Woolf if she had had the chance to proof read it.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

The sentence bluntly expressed a reality that hadn't been realized by the narrator until then.
Gunpowder has to be compacted to explode, so the fact that the grandfather was a fisherman is laying there, all expressed at once, like gunpowder ready to explode.

[Rusty]

The relative conjunction 'that' is made necessary by the inclusion of the comma-delimited metaphor.

[Xinfu]

The relative conjunction 'that' is made necessary by the inclusion of the comma-delimited metaphor.
Excellent answer. Thank you.