Excerpt from Peter: A Novel of Which He Is Not the Hero Peter was still poring over his ledger one dark after noon in December, his bald head glistening like a huge ostrich egg under the flare of the overhead gas jets, when Patrick, the night watchman, catching sight of my face peering through the outer grating, Opened the door of the Bank. The sight so late in the day was an unusual one, for in all the years that I have called at the Bank - ten, now - no, eleven since we first knew each other - Peter had seldom failed to be ready for our walk uptown when the Old moon-faced clock high up on the wall above the stove pointed at four. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.