The Beast in the Jungle by Henry James

It was always open to him to accuse her of seeing him but as the most harmless of maniacs, and this, in the long run-- since it covered so much ground-- was his easiest description of their friendship. He had a screw loose for her but she liked him in spite of it and was practically, against the rest of the world, his kind wise keeper, unremunerated but fairly amused and, in the absence of other near ties, not disreputably occupied. The rest if the world of course thought him queer, but she, she only, knew how, and above all why, queer; which was precisely what enabled her to dispose the concealing veil in the right folds.