Summary

In "Abingdon Squar," Paul speaks as a retrospective narrator, “looking back” on an unnamed woman’s e-mails to him (237). Paul says that this unnamed woman called him “dearest” in every e-mail, which consistently aroused him. However, Paul complains that there was never a hint of “something else” in the woman’s e-mails, speculating that maybe this woman did “drop into your life as easily as she sprang out of it” with “no baggage” (238).

Paul then remembers he had read one of her articles, and therefore discovered her “complicated” mind, saying he loved her for it (238). Paul remembers the unnamed woman saying that “patterns made for good stories,” but ultimately patterns were for “regular people,” not for them (239). The unnamed woman then confesses her analyst disagrees with her thoughts about patterns. Paul confesses he loved how she oscillated between two thoughts.

Paul reveals that...