Answer:
It describes what the narrator experiences in the story.
Step-by-step explanation:
Washington Irving's short story "The Adventures of the Mysterious Stranger" is part of his collection of works titled "Tales of a Traveler". This story revolves around the narrator and a certain young man whom the narrtaor seems to have an interest in. So, he began to follow him and in no time, they encountered each other almost everywhere in public places.
The above excerpt from the e text shows after the usual encounters, from when the young man began to also act like a friend to the narrator. He began to "clung to me like a drowning man. He would walk with me for hours up and down the place of St. Mark—or he would sit until night was far advanced in my apartment". This shows just how smothering and over clingy the young man had become with the narrator. The narrator began to feel irritated about the clingy friend, who he had first though of befriending but now seems to be fed up with his constant presence.