they felt it , he and tibor ; a final truth , and yet it was , for them in their ignorance , without reference sources , both leaving and finding the summertime , the sun-struck woodland ; it was life and the leaving of life fused , since they did not quite make it out rationally , and it frightened them , and yet they turned and returned to it , because -- and perhaps exactly because they could not understand -- it was a balm ; it salved them .