I recalled the fact that in all our talks I had never heard Oscar use a gross word.

His mind, I said to myself, is like Spenser's, vowed away from coarseness and vulgarity: he's the most perfect intellectual companion in the world.
He may have wanted to talk to the boys just to see what effect his talk would have on them.

His vanity is greedy enough to desire even such applause as theirs....

Of course, that was the explanation--vanity.

My affection for him, tormented by doubt, had found at length a satisfactory solution.