But I had lost all my illusions as to the nature of their secret: they had no access to occult spheres where the white radiance of eternity shone brighter for them than it did for us, or where the horizon was vaster than that of my smaller world. My disillusionment served to reduce the universe and mankind to a trivial day-to-day level. I did not realize it immediately, but the prestige of grown-ups had suffered a considerable diminution in my esteem.
