CHAPTER XII.
It was after this little nocturnal encounter that Helen found herself watching Mr.Kane with a dim, speculative sympathy.

There was nothing else of much interest to watch, as far as she was aware, for Helen's powers of observation were not sharpened by much imaginativeness.

Her sympathy must be aroused for her to care to see, and just now she felt no sympathy for any one but Mr.Kane.
Gerald, flirting far less flagrantly and sketching assiduously, was in no need of sympathy; nor Althea, despite the fact that Helen felt her to be a little reserved and melancholy.

Althea, on the whole, seemed placidly enough absorbed in her duties of hostess, and her state of mind, at no time much preoccupying Helen, preoccupied her now less than ever.

The person who really interested her, now that she had come to look at him and to realise that he was suffering, was Mr.Kane.He was puzzling to her, not mystifying; there was no element of depth or shadow about him; even his suffering--it was odd to think that a person with such a small, flat nose should suffer--even his suffering was pellucid.
He puzzled her because he was different from anything she had ever encountered, and he made her think of a page of trite phrases printed in a half-comprehended dialect.