She came right up to me and put her snow-white hand on my arm. "You poor boy," she murmured, "you poor boy." I'm not a boy, and I'm not poor, and I wished the hell she would get away. She has a clever face, but I felt in it, that night, the force of a great sadness and great malice. "I see a rope around your neck," she said sadly.
The narrator describes an uncomfortable encounter with a woman who approaches him with apparent sympathy, placing her hand on his arm. She expresses pity, calling him a "poor boy," which irritates him since he feels mischaracterized, resenting her presumptions about his situation. Despite her clever appearance, he perceives a deep sadness and malevolence in her demeanor that unnerves him.
The woman makes a troubling statement, claiming to see a "rope around your neck," which adds to the eerie atmosphere of the interaction. This imagery suggests hopelessness or impending doom, leaving the narrator unsettled. Her words hint at a deeper understanding of his struggles, yet he rejects her interpretation, emphasizing the disconnect between their perspectives and his desire to distance himself from her foreboding insight.
