I contrived to keep out of her sight as much as I could, but I never lost track of her

“I contrived to keep out of her sight as much as I could, but I never lost track of her. The last station she got off at was away down in Virginia, about six in the evening.”
(a) Who is the speaker here?
(b) Which word in the extract is a synonym of ‘managed’?
© Why was he following her?

(a) John A Pescud is the speaker of the above lines.
(b) The word is ‘contrived’.
© He was following her because he was attracted to her good looks from the moment when he first saw her.