Julius said: "Besides, Maggie dear, the Commander isn't interested in our paltry concerns.

It is with difficulty I bring myself to talk of my paltry concerns, but I cannot refuse giving you such information as may enable me to hear from one of the friends that I have still left.

In his middle years (well, he's "over 40, only just"), Garry manifests an ever-increasing impatience with sham and self-pity, while others, who wallow in their own paltry concerns, perceive him as an "affected egomaniac, an unmitigated cad."