Past Perfect Continuous in Dialogues

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Grammar explanation I:
Past Perfect Continuous (also known as the Past Perfect Progressive Tense) is used to describe an action which began before a given past moment and continued into it or up to it. In this meaning it is parallel to Past Perfect for stative verbs and may be used with certain time indications: either a whole period of the duration of the action is indicated or its starting point ("for + time" or "before + moment").

Study the following dialogues paying attention to the use of the Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

Dialogue 1 

Jan Blakeley and Bart Templeton are a newly married couple. They are not as happy as they are supposed to be as Jan is ill with Tuberculosis.

Jan: You are the most perfect husband in the world, but it’s all one-sided. I can’t give you anything in return.
Bart: … I wasn’t rushed into it. I had been thinking about marrying you for a long time, only there didn’t seem to be much sense in it when we couldn’t be together. But now we are together. Isn’t that enough?
Jan: No! Not when I can’t give you anything.
Bart: You give me everything. You give me the only things … that are really worth having. … You’re the only person who’s ever given any peace. Isn’t that enough?

(D. Cusack. Say no to Death) 

Dialogue 2

Benjamin, a young miner, loves to dance. Once he and his girlfriend saw a dancing performance of Spanish gipsies. The dances impressed Benjamin so much that he began practicing gipsy dances. All of a sudden he got rheumatic fever that weakened his heart. For weeks he had to stay in bed. Once after he is allowed to leave his bed he invites hid friend to his house to show her how he can dance Spanish flamenco. 

Benjamin: Do you think I am daft?
The girl: Why?
Benjamin: For dancing like that?
The girl: Why should you be daft?
Benjamin: Did I look funny?
The girl: Do you care?
Benjamin: No.
The girl: You didn’t look funny. You looked lovely. …
Benjamin: Before I was ill I’d been practicing. It was after seeing … Spaniards that night. Do you remember? I enjoyed watching them. I like dancing that way. Means more. Doesn’t it? Don’t you think so? You can put more feeling into a flamenco than you can put into a foxtrot. I am telling you.

(S. Delaney. Pavan for a Dead Prince)

Grammar explanation II 
Also the Past Perfect Continuous denotes an action which was in progress just before a given past moment and its effect tells on the past situation in some way. In this meaning, it is, as a rule, not associated with any indications of time.

Note, in the dialogues below, the use of the Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

Dialogue 3

Miss Ada Moss lies in a black iron bedstead staring up at the ceiling. Her room, a Bloomsbury top-floor back smells of soot. The girl is cold and hungry as she never has a good hot dinner. Her landlady bounces in. 

Mrs Pine: There’s a letter for you, Miss Moss.
Miss Moss: Oh, thank you very much, Mrs Pine. It’s very good of you, I’m sure, to take the trouble.
Mrs Pine: No trouble at all. I thought perhaps it was the letter you had been expecting.

(K. Mansfield. Pictures) 

Dialogue 4 

Frank Cowperwood, a financier, known all over Europe, is rumoured to be seriously ill. It tells badly on his business. So Cowperwood’s doctor advises him to take a leisurely trip in Europe to cause favourable comments in the newspapers. When Cowperwood is back in London he is attacked by reporters. 

A reporter: Is there any truth to the rumour, Mr Cowpwerwood, that you’ve been seriously ill?
Cowperwood: As a matter of fact, my boy, I had been working too hard and found I needed a rest. A doctor friend of mine did accompany me on this trip, and we’ve just been puttering around the Continent.

(Th. Dreiser. The Stoic) 

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