I found this really fascinating-- such a vivid picture of an impossibly self-destructive (spoiled) person and his loyal friend.
Charles stopped smiling a long time ago, and neither of them remembered what it looked like. So sad, but the rest of the story makes it clear why.
William had fallen in love with him then and there, but Charles would have none of it. This was such a key element in their relationship. We can't know whether William might have stopped roaming and trying to escape the world had Charles given in to loving him, but we can't know either whether Charles could have--would have-- loved him in return but for a keen sense of self-preservation and the sense that William would only have broken his heart.
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Charles stopped smiling a long time ago, and neither of them remembered what it looked like.
So sad, but the rest of the story makes it clear why.
William had fallen in love with him then and there, but Charles would have none of it.
This was such a key element in their relationship. We can't know whether William might have stopped roaming and trying to escape the world had Charles given in to loving him, but we can't know either whether Charles could have--would have-- loved him in return but for a keen sense of self-preservation and the sense that William would only have broken his heart.
In the end, it saved neither of them.