In the passage from Wallace Stegner's "Angle of Repose," the author reflects on the profound and complex experience of gazing into the eyes of someone with whom one has shared a deep history. This intimate connection is so powerful that it surpasses even the familiarity of one's own reflection. The act of looking into those eyes invokes a rush of memories and emotions, despite a conscious effort to forget the past.

The experience is described as disarming, evoking feelings of vulnerability and exposure akin to being naked. The return of emotional closeness, masked as friendly concern, emphasizes the nuances of human relationships and the tension between connection and forgetfulness. Stegner captures the essence of how intimate encounters can resurface even after a deliberate separation.