There had come a pause in his life.

His back was to the City and his face was set towards an unknown world.

Half unconsciously he had undertaken a little voyage of exploration.
From the Strand he crossed Trafalgar Square into Pall Mall, and up the Haymarket into Piccadilly.

He was very soon aware that he had wandered into a world whose ways were not his ways and with whom he had no kinship.

Yet he set himself sedulously to observe them, conscious that what he saw represented a very large side of life.