how could i pass judgment knowing how alone he had been ? ... but that was n't all : as i closed the door , i saw them standing there in front of his wall of oddities , and the stare of recognition that passed between them , the alone meeting the lonely , carried with it a level of comprehension much deeper than anything i ever saw between duncan and mary ; as deep as if they had been lovers for twenty years { the truth was , you spent about as much time with that prostitute as you did with mary over the years , so how could you know ? } .