 Benson gently declined Walpole 's advances . They remained friends , but Walpole , rebuffed in his " excessive desire to be loved " , turned the full force of his <unk> elsewhere , and the relationship with Benson became less important to him . Less than two years later Benson 's diary entry on Walpole 's subsequent social career reveals his thoughts on his protégé 's progress : 
