A veil seemed to have been torn from before his eyes.

Just as in London every face into which he had looked, every building which he had passed, had seemed to him unfamiliar, appealing to an altered system of impressions, so here, during that brief walk, a new disgust was born in him.

The showy-looking main street with its gingerbread buildings, all new and glittering with paint, appalled him.

The larger villas--self-conscious types all reeking with plaster and false decorations--set him shivering.
He turned into his own street and his heart sank.

Something had indeed touched his eyes and he saw new and terrible things.