It was typical of the position he was to occupy in the days that were coming.
Within a pace or two of the huddled figure, Stella stopped.

He had not moved.

It was evident that he was so rapt in meditation that her presence at that moment was no more to him than that of an insect crawling across his path.

His eyes, red-rimmed, startlingly bright, still challenged the coming day.

His whole expression was so grimly aloof, so sternly unsympathetic, that she hesitated to disturb him.
Humbly Peter came to her assistance.