Sentence:  He looked at her out of himself , she thought , as he did only for an instant at a time , the look which always surprised her even <WSD>now</WSD> when his uncombable hair was yellowing a little and his breath came hard through his nicotine choked lungs , the look of the gaunt youth she had suddenly found herself staring at in the Tate Gallery on a Thursday once . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  in the historical present; at this point in the narration of a series of past events