He found some dinner ready, which he ate with absolute unconsciousness.

Then he threw himself fiercely into his work.

It was all very well for the first hour or so, but as ten o'clock grew near he began to find a curious difficulty in keeping his attention fixed upon those calculations.

The matter of average rentals, percentage upon capital--things which but yesterday he had found fascinating--seemed suddenly irksome.

He could fix his attention upon nothing.