Mr. JENNER. Was that fairly distinct in your mind?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes; it was quite distinct. I don't believe he felt
successful.
As I have said, I didn't talk much with him about what his aims were.
But it seemed to me, and Marina expressed to me her feeling, that he
had an overblown opinion of himself, and of what he could and should
achieve in the world.
Mr. JENNER. What is your impression of him as his being introspective
or an introvert or an extrovert? Did he seek friends or did he avoid
social contact? What are your impressions in those areas of him?
Mrs. PAINE. I would say that he was a combination, that the man within
was an introvert, preferred the company of the television set or a
book, but that he could, as I have said, be a genial host or go to a
meeting of the American Civil Liberties Union with my husband, and
I understand that he made a fairly good impression upon some of the
people there.
And I have also heard that he was making a fairly good impression where
he was working at this last place.
Further, it is not the sign of an introvert to blow off on little
things to your wife, as he did. I felt that he exercised the safety
valve of expressing irritations early. He didn't save them up. They
came right out. I might say, also, I felt that he was primarily an
emotional person, though he talked of ideology and philosophy, that
what moved him and what reached him were the more emotional qualities
of life, and that he was really unusually sensitive to hurt.
Now, some of this is hindsight, and I would like to label it as such,
but I want to say that I was not at all surprised reading after the
assassination that he took a little puppy to his favorite teacher as
a gift, and then came over to see this puppy very often. This was in
the fourth grade or so. As an effort to make a warm contact and show
feeling.
Mr. JENNER. That is, if this incident did in fact take place, it was
something that you could understand?
Mrs. PAINE. Yes.