At the best of times he was never very positive, always negative rather,
compliant and acquiescent; yet, when necessity arose he was capable of
reasonably vigorous action and could take a strongish decision. The
discovery he now made that brought him up with such a sharp turn was
that this power had positively dwindled to nothing. He found it
impossible to make up his mind. For, on this fifth day, he realised that
he had stayed long enough in the town and that for reasons he could only
vaguely define to himself it was wiser _and safer_ that he should leave.

And he found that he could not leave!

This is difficult to describe in words, and it was more by gesture and
the expression of his face that he conveyed to Dr. Silence the state of
impotence he had reached. All this spying and watching, he said, had as
it were spun a net about his feet so that he was trapped and powerless
to escape; he felt like a fly that had blundered into the intricacies of
a great web; he was caught, imprisoned, and could not get away. It was a
distressing sensation. A numbness had crept over his will till it had
become almost incapable of decision. The mere thought of vigorous
action--action towards escape--began to terrify him. All the currents of
his life had turned inwards upon himself, striving to bring to the
surface something that lay buried almost beyond reach, determined to
force his recognition of something he had long forgotten--forgotten
years upon years, centuries almost ago. It seemed as though a window
deep within his being would presently open and reveal an entirely new
world, yet somehow a world that was not unfamiliar. Beyond that, again,
he fancied a great curtain hung; and when that too rolled up he would
see still farther into this region and at last understand something of
the secret life of these extraordinary people.