When in the society of men he had a sense of terrible isolation from the real world, because he had no time to listen, and to see. There was always the suspicion, rapidly becoming conviction, that something was happening. Sometimes he had to run out someplace to sit quiet and see what the world was doing; to be still and listen to the roots talking. The veil of emotion and noise and shallowness that was always associated with the presence of human beings hid the world from him and made him tense.
