Commonplace Book

'The idea that people thought he had done it on purpose haunted him. He was sure they spoke of it, thought of it, laughed at it. He imagined it rivalled Anzio as a topic. He would have liked to have been everywhere at once to have stopped this general conversation. If one of a group, he could not walk away alone, he had to stay till it broke up. If circumstances compelled him to leave then he dallied at the door on the fringe, trying to make the last words friendlier and friendlier, until he felt he could leave with impunity. But he never could. Once or twice his whipped look, his endless scavenging for respect - just a little respect - earned him some crushing abuse which turned him white after the first few syllables - the proof, the proof - he had known it all the time: he was a sort of leper.'

from A Share of the World by Hugo Charteris (Part One, Chapter 16)