He found time to admire the ease with which she sat down, then lurched toward a chair facing her, overwhelmed with consciousness of the awkward figure he was cutting.

This was a new experience for him.

All his life, up to then, he had been unaware of being either graceful or awkward.

Such thoughts of self had never entered his mind.

He sat down gingerly on the edge of the chair, greatly worried by his hands.