The single mind of this old man, divorced by illness from his previous existence, pensioned and permanently shelved, began to worship a new star, that with every week and month and year grew brighter, till all other stars had lost their glimmer and died out.
At the age of seventy-four he had begun his book.

Under the spell of his subject and of advancing age, his extreme inattention to passing matters became rapidly accentuated.

His figure had become almost too publicly conspicuous before Bianca, finding him one day seated on the roof of his lonely little top-story flat, the better to contemplate his darling Universe, had inveigled him home with her, and installed him in a room in her own house.

After the first day or two he had not noticed any change to speak of.
His habits in his new home were soon formed, and once formed, they varied not at all; for he admitted into his life nothing which took him from the writing of his book.
On the afternoon following Hilary's dismissal of the little model, being disappointed of his amanuensis, Mr.Stone had waited for an hour, reading his pages over and over to himself.

He had then done his exercises.