Read the excerpt from "Look Homeward, Angel."

They picked him foul and witless from the cobbles, and brought him home. . . . And always they handled him with tender care, feeling something strange and proud and glorious lost in [him]. . . . He was a stranger to them: no one—not even Eliza—ever called him by his first name. He was—and remained thereafter—"Mister" Gant. . . .
Which best describes the townspeople’s view of Oliver Gant?

A. They were unsympathetic to his suffering.
B. They respected him and cared about his wellbeing.
C. They admired his self-reliance and his strength.
D. They pitied him and believed him to be weak.