any fears he had centred on the front door and the very real possibility of it opening to admit a man of wealth and substance , alive and present , not remembered on a conscious level , yet whose majestic image lurked all the same , snapped like a fish from the murky depths of scherzo 's foetus days the instant that man 's reflection sought to invert itself through the vitreous medium of his eyes and travel the optic nerve to his stalled cerebrum , banging a gong along the processional way .