She had found him, during her few conversations with him, so tamely funny as to be hardly odd, though his manner of speaking and the way in which his hair was cut struck her as expressing oddity to an unfortunate degree; but though only dimly aware of him, and aware mainly in this sense of amusement, she had, since Althea had informed her of his status, seen him with some compassionateness.

It didn't make him less funny to her that he should have been in love with Althea for fifteen years, rather it made him more so.

Helen found it difficult to take either the devotion or its object very seriously.

She thought hopeless passions rather ridiculous, her own included, but Gerald she did consider a possible object of passion; and how Althea could be an object of passion for anybody, even for funny little Mr.Kane, surpassed her comprehension, so that the only way to understand the situation was to decide that Mr.Kane was incapable of passion altogether.

But to-night she received a new impression; looking at Mr.Kane's face, thin, jaded, and kindly attentive to herself, it suddenly became apparent to her that whatever his feeling might be it was serious.