It suspends the flow of time, stops the incessant drive into the future, and yet keeps the clock running. It clips the wings of temporal ecstasy, but only temporarily, only by a certain deferral, a postponement. It can suspend time only by being itself a definite, carefully regulated interval of time, time at a standstill even while remaining time, almost a kind of space of time inserted into time, suspending time, almost as if it were a bit of eternity. Also, then, an intense time, a time of intense preparation, a time of decision.