He had accepted his guest's careless or premeditated silence regarding the particulars of his accident as a matter of course, and had never dreamed of questioning him.

That it was a natural accident of that great world so apart from his own experiences he did not doubt, and thought no more about it.

The advent of the man himself was greater to him than the causes which brought him there.

He was as yet quite unconscious of the complete fascination this mysterious stranger held over him, but he found himself shyly pleased with even the slight interest he had displayed in his affairs, and his hand felt yet warm and tingling from his sudden soft but expressive grasp, as if it had been a woman's.

There is a simple intuition of friendship in some lonely, self-abstracted natures that is nearly akin to love at first sight.