He was trained to be hard and to pass through strangers and acquaintances with professional efficacy. That is the way he conducted his life; never breaking his silence with the world. 'I know what the world demands; I am the world demanding.' His hardness brought him success and he traveled whenever he had the free time. It was while in Normandy, in the town of Rouen, that he stumbled onto a stranger while waiting for a dinner. The man sat in an empty seat opposite the American and looked at the American for a long time. When the American finally looked up he saw that the stranger had an odd and familiar look about him. It was as though he had fought battle with the person in his youth but now, separated by time, he was only a vague memory. He saw him, suddenly, as a rival fighting for the attention of a beautiful woman. They did not quite fight to the death but one of them, the American, won. And the American was haunted by the feeling that this particular person was not even a real person; a person with real desires, but, only a conduit to something missing in his own spirit. He had several nights of restless sleep before he had to return to the comforts of his American home.