And he suffered enough from brazenly meddlesome and self-seeking folk, from impudent and inquisitive intruders, to justify some suspicion of old acquaintances suddenly styling themselves old friends, and of distant connections newly and unduly eager to claim relationship.

Many I misjudged, and have long known it.

On the whole, however, I wonder at that attitude of mine as little as I approve of it.
If I had distinguished myself in any other way, it would have been a different thing.

It was the fussy, sentimental, inconsiderate interest in one thrown into purely accidental and necessarily painful prominence--the vulgarization of an unspeakable tragedy--that my soul abhorred.

I confess that I regarded it from my own unique and selfish point of view.