A combination of eagerness and timidity, that he would have ridiculed in any one else, had mastered him for the moment.
Years ago, he would have understood it, expected it.

Now he was thirty-six.

A man who has lived to his age, lived the years moreover in his way, does not look to be moved to school-boy timidity by the sight of a woman.

He pulled a cigarette-case out of his pocket, extracted a cigarette and lit it before he was really conscious of this action.
She passed down Southampton Street into the Strand without noticing him.

Then for the second time he followed.