"Well," he said, not very logically, "that narcissus has nothing but air
around it; my thought of the narcissus has mind around it."

"Then a thought is better than a thing because it has thought round
about it?"

"Well, yes"

"Did the thing come there of itself, or did it come of God's thinking?"

"Of God's thinking."

"And God is always the same?"

"Yes."

"Then God's thought is about the narcissus still--and the narcissus is
better than your thought of it!"

Walter was silent.

"I should so like to understand!" said Molly. "If you have a thought
more beautiful than the narcissus, Walter, I should like to see it! Only
if I could see it, it would be a thing, would it not? A thing must be a
think before it be a thing. A thing is a ripe think, and must be better
than a think--except it lose something in ripening--which may very well
be with man's thoughts, but hardly with God's! I will keep in front of
the things, and look through them to the thoughts behind them. I want to
understand! If a thing were not a thought first, it would not be worth