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Blackwood, Algernon, 1869-1951

"The Extra Day"

The smile, he felt, came
marvellously back to him from the sunshine and the open world of sky
and trees beyond. There was some one there who smiled--invisibly.
"You're real, quite real," the letters danced instantly into new
sentences. "But you are so awfully close to me--so close I cannot see
you."
He felt the invisible Stranger suddenly as real as that. There was
only one thing to see--only one thing everywhere. The beauty of the
discovery put reason utterly and finally to flight. But that one thing
was hiding. The Stranger concealed himself--he hid on purpose. He
wanted to be looked for--found. And the heart grew "warm" or "cold"
accordingly: when it was warm that mysterious anticipation stirred--
"Some one is coming!"
And Uncle Felix, sitting in the sunlight of that breakfast-room,
understood that the entire universe formed a conspiracy to hide "him."
Some one, indeed, had come, slipped into the gorgeous and detailed
clothing of the entire world as easily as birds and trees slip into
their own particular clothing, planning with Time to hide him, wanting
to play a little--to play at Hide-and-Seek. "Let them all look for me!
I'm hiding!.


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