The present was not yet real to him.
While he ate, the sun set beyond a dip in the rim of the curved wall.

As the morning sun burst wondrously through a grand arch into this valley, in a golden, slanting shaft, so the evening sun, at the moment of setting, shone through a gap of cliffs, sending down a broad red burst to brighten the oval with a blaze of fire.

To Venters both sunrise and sunset were unreal.
A cool wind blew across the oval, waving the tips of oaks, and while the light lasted, fluttering the aspen leaves into millions of facets of red, and sweeping the graceful spruces.

Then with the wind soon came a shade and a darkening, and suddenly the valley was gray.

Night came there quickly after the sinking of the sun.