He was aware, dimly, that for the past five years situations in which he had been had been dominated by him, and that he, as a clergyman, had been continually the centre of concern.

Talk, conduct, and company had been rearranged when he came in, and it had happened so often that he had ceased to be aware of it.

But now he was a mere unit, of no particular importance whatever.

No one dreamed of modifying himself particularly because a clergyman was present.

Peter clung to the belief that it was not altogether so, but he was sufficiently conscious of it.