He was not a common sort of lover; and he was punished for it as if Nature (which it is said abhors a vacuum) were so very conventional as to abhor every sort of exceptional conduct.

Roderick Anthony had begun already to suffer.

That is why perhaps he was so industrious in going about amongst his fellowmen who would have been surprised and humiliated, had they known how little solidity and even existence they had in his eyes.

But they could not suspect anything so queer.

They saw nothing extraordinary in him during that fortnight.