Sentence:  The part of the mind that preserves dates and events may remonstrate , `` It could have been like that for only a little <WSD>while</WSD> '' ; but true memory does not count nor add : it holds fast to things that were and they are outside of time . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition