Most often one has a tendency to wrongly judge others. In this case, the man judges the girl, Mary, as trying to trick him so she can get a ride. The author writes:

He knew her type all right. (...) while all the time she was secretly laughing at him for being the sucker who picked her up, bought her a lunch, and drove her into town. She couldn't fool him; he'd met her type before. (page 109)

He thinks that she is playing an innocent role to fool him but that she isn't as innocent as she let on. All the while, the one who is trying to trick someone is definitely not Mary but the man "Tom". He knows, the whole time, that his inner thoughts are wrong. While the girl trusts him more and more, and opening up to him, he continues to hide his true identity. He does so by not stating his real name, by vaguely speaking about his work and by hiding the init

Not only does one judge others by first appearances, but one also perceives him or her self in a certain way. In this case, Tom judges himself as being a powerful man. While traveling on the road, he pats his wallet proudly as of showing he has a lot of money. He thinks highly of himself when putting the hitchhikers down, and calling them "lazy bums". At the beginning, he has a feeling of power that takes a fatal turn at the end of the story. Power usually comes with control and the reason why Tom wrongly judges himself is because he doesn't ever really have true control over what is happening. Sure he cross-examines the girl freely without having to answer any question himself. But he can't control the girl's reaction, especially after the fact that he is repeating the same mistake her uncle did by trying to take advantage of her. He realizes there was more to Mary then what he had concluded at her first appearance. And he figures this out after her outburst in the car. The story reads:

We've all heard the famous saying "only God can judge". Why do people say this? Simply because He sea's all and hears all. Besides him no one should judge others,

He wanted to quiet her, to show her that his actions had been the result of an old man's foolish impulse. ( page 109)

But there was a feeling of obscene guilt beating his brain like a reiteration. Something of hers seemed to attach itself to his memory. Then suddenl

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Approximate Word count = 959
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)