He was like the innocent reader for whom the story is "really true" and the author a negligible quantity.

He had come to me only because he wanted to purchase, and I remember being so amused at his attitude, which I had never seen equally marked in a person of education, that I asked him why, for the sort of enjoyment he desired, it wouldn't be more to the point to deal directly with the lady.

He stared and blushed at this; the idea clearly alarmed him.

He was an extraordinary case--personally so modest that I could see it had never occurred to him.

He had fallen in love with a painted sign and seemed content just to dream of what it stood for.