I suppose it should make me less unhappy that the woman who told me I wasn’t getting the job (because another candidate showed up with six years more experience at the same job than I had ) seemed to feel badly about it (she kept apologizing over and over).  It should help my wounded pride that she told me I was their leading candidate otherwise, and that if the other person did not pan out she would call me immediately, although she was sure that I would not be available because someone would have snapped me up.

It doesn’t.