The Well of Loneliness

But one thing there was that Puddle still feared, and this was the girl's desire for isolation. To her it appeared like a weakness in Stephen; she divined the bruised humility of spirit that now underlay this desire for isolation, and she did her best to frustrate it. It was Puddle who had forced the embarrassed Stephen to let in the Press photographers, and Puddle it was who had given the details for the captions that were to appear with the pictures: "If you choose to behave like a hermit crab I shall use my own judgment about what I say!"

"I don't care a tinker's darn what you say! Now leave me in peace do, Puddle."