In my opinion, Ned is a sympathetic character. I think the author wants us to like Ned and I like him. In the story, Ned works so hard, he swims across the county. Ted is really a sympathetic man, he is bankrupt, and his memory loses this part. He thinks that Lucinda and his daughter are waiting him at home. When he begins swimming in Westerhazys' pool, and the Grahams' swimming pool, they treated him hospitably. When it storms, he stays in the Levys' gazebo. When he gets to the Welchers' , he finds that their house is for sale now, Ned can't even remember when he last heard about the Welchers. Then the author asks that " Was his memory failing or had he so disciplined it in the repression of unpleasant facts that he had damaged his sense of
