The word "recluse" grated on his sensitiveness a little; but when the least important of the evening papers roundly asserted it to be notorious that he was of extremely eccentric habits, he grew secretly furious.

Neither his modesty nor his philosophy was influential enough to restore him to complete calm.
Eccentric! He! What next?
Eccentric, indeed! Now, what conceivable justification------?
_The Ruling Classes_ Between a quarter-past and half-past eleven he was seated alone at a small table in the restaurant of the Grand Babylon.

He had had no news of Mrs.Challice; she had not instantly telegraphed to Selwood Terrace, as he had wildly hoped.

But in the boxes of Henry Leek, safely retrieved by the messenger from South Kensington Station, he had discovered one of his old dress-suits, not too old, and this dress-suit he had donned.

The desire to move about unknown in the well-clad world, the world of the frequenters of costly hotels, the world to which he was accustomed, had overtaken him.