As a result of his time in Naples Lewis underwent a conversion.The experience occurred when a group of girls between the ages of nine and twelve appeared in the doorway of a restaurant where he was eating. The girls were orphans, attracted to the restaurant by the smell of food. Noticing that they were weeping and realizing they were blind, he expected his fellow diners to interrupt their meal. But nobody moved. The girls were treated as though they did not exist. 'Forkfuls of food were thrust into open mouths, the rattle of conversation continued, nobody saw the tears.'
     Reflecting on the scene Lewis found 'the experience changed my outlook. Until now I had clung to the comforting belief that human beings eventually come to terms with pain and sorrow. Now I understood I was wrong, and like Paul I suffered a conversion - but to pessimism . . . I knew that, condemned to everlasting darkness, hunger and loss, they would weep incessantly. They would never recover from their pain, and I would never recover from the memory of it.'

THE SILENCE OF ANIMALS / JOHN GRAY