They seemed to say
"There is no hurry! We're all alive together! There's enough for all;
no need to get there first!" _They_ knew. The golden day lay waiting
outside with overflowing beauty, and he who had brought them in stood
just behind this beauty that hid and covered them. When they had eaten
and drunk, they, too, would come and join the search. Exceedingly
beautiful they were--the shy grace of the dainty bird, the brilliant
wasp in black and gold, the soft brown bee, the magnificent Purple
Emperor, fresh from the open spaces above the windy forest: all said
the same big, joyful thing, "We are alive!... No hurry!..."
The trio flew down the passage, took the stairs in leaps and bounds,
raced across the hall where the back-door, standing open, framed the
lawn and garden in a blaze of sunshine.
And as Uncle Felix followed, half dancing like the other two, he saw a
little thing that vaguely reminded him of--another little thing. The
memory was vague and far away; there was a curious distance in it,
like the distance of a dream recalled in the day-light, no longer what
is called quite real. For his eye caught something gleaming on the
side-table below the presentation clock, and the odd, ridiculous word
that sprang into his mind was "salver.
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