I thought she just appealed to me,
fascinated me somehow or other. And I wanted to do things for her all
the time. I was always thinking of some excuse to be where she was. I
was looking forward to doing a lot more things--I suppose it was only
selfishness, because I wanted to make her like me, but I didn't
realize that till after she was gone."
"Gone?" Eileen encouraged him.
"Yes. She didn't want me to do those things I'd been planning for her.
She wouldn't have what I could do, or me, at any price."
"Did you--had you--told her you _cared_?"
"Great Scott! no. I hadn't got nearly so far as that. I told her I
hoped to see her again, that if there was something I could do to
help, I--but she wasn't taking any. She seemed friendly and kind
before that, which made it worse when she turned me down so hard. I
suppose she hadn't minded much at first, but the more she saw of me
the more she couldn't stand for the shape of my nose or the way I
talked, maybe. She just got to feel that the sight of me hanging
around would poison New York for her, and she intimated that her
health would be better if I kept at the other end of the city. You
wouldn't have had me continue to butt in, would you?"
"I don't know.
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