They have not yet been enlightened by the darkness, symbolically reality. At this stage in their life, reality only stretches as far as the streetlights they play under. They are unacquainted with the darkness engulfing the city, saved only by weak glimmer of lantern lights. Inevitably, the narrator soon realizes the glow of their bodies made possible by the spiritual maintenance of youth is nothing compared to the angelic shine of Mangan's sister.
The boy displays a certain fascination for Mangan's sister. Judging by the descriptions the reader is provided, the light follows her person as if an inseparable aura about her. When the narrator sees her calling her brother to dinner outside her house, it's stated that "her figure [was] defined by the light from the half-opened door." (19) Her highlighted body illustrates the idea that she is angelic, virginal, and holy. There is still an apparent emptiness suggested by her shadowed center; she is left unnamed. The personality left in the background, as if her purpose is only to serve as motivation for the boy's coming of age. He ignores her reality, instead choosing to occupy the foreground by his lonesome. The superficial light of this terrestrial angel is what he hopes will free him from the darkness of his "blind" (18) street that leaves him with a need for foresight. The legitimacy of the narrator's first interaction with his love is questionable. While he sits in the darkness of the "back drawing room where the priest had died" pressing his hands together "murmuring 'O love O love' many times," (19) she suddenly appears to him. Through the eyes of the narrator, she is again illuminated by "the light from the lamp."(19) This appearance is so sudden; it is as if she has been conjured. It is suggested that his trembling hands pushed together have had their prayer answered. In an apparent act of desperation to escape the darkness in which "he could see so little," he temporarily evades reality with the aid of the conjuration of Mangan's sister.