He scarcely looked at the passers-by, tried to escape looking at their faces at all, and to be as little noticeable as possible.
Suddenly he thought of his hat.

"Good heavens! I had the money the day before yesterday and did not get a cap to wear instead!" A curse rose from the bottom of his soul.
Glancing out of the corner of his eye into a shop, he saw by a clock on the wall that it was ten minutes past seven.

He had to make haste and at the same time to go someway round, so as to approach the house from the other side....
When he had happened to imagine all this beforehand, he had sometimes thought that he would be very much afraid.

But he was not very much afraid now, was not afraid at all, indeed.

His mind was even occupied by irrelevant matters, but by nothing for long.