A vast shyness, coming to consternation, seized him.

He felt a sense of personal guilt; and yet a feeling of indignity and injustice claimed him.

But all this and all his sullen anger was wiped out in this great shyness of a man not used to facing women.

Sim Gage was product of a womanless land.

This was the closest his orbit ever had come to that of the great mystery.