In the few moments' interval an eternity
might have passed. Their hearts opened curiously, they saw wonder
growing like a flower inside--the exquisite wonder of common things.
There was something they were looking for, but they had found it. The
flower of wonder blossomed there before their very eyes, explaining
the world, but not explaining it away, explaining simply that it was
wonderful beyond all telling. They all knew suddenly what they didn't
know they knew; they understood what nobody understands. None knew why
it came just at this particular moment, and none knew where it came
from either. It was there, so what else mattered. It broke upon them
out of the heart of the summer's day, out of this very ordinary Sunday
morning, out of the brimming life all about them that was passing but
could never pass away. The familiar figures of the gardener, the
butler, the policeman and the cook brought back to them the memory of
something they had forgotten, yet brought it back in the form of
endless and inexhaustible enticement rather than of complete recovery.
There had been long preparation somewhere, growth, development; but
that was past and they gave no thought to it; Expectancy and Wonder
rushed them off their feet.
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