The demeanour of one suggested gloomy impudence and of the other a contemptuous boredom; yet one attitude might not have been truer than the other, and I was aware that one was not true.

Brierly was not bored--he was exasperated; and if so, then Jim might not have been impudent.

According to my theory he was not.

I imagined he was hopeless.
Then it was that our glances met.

They met, and the look he gave me was discouraging of any intention I might have had to speak to him.