He seemed to know right away that Maurice was gay. The scene was brief, but we see him glance at Maurice a few times and then apparently try to make a pass at him that Maurice pushes away. How did he know?
"We gotta go to the crappy town where I'm a hero!"
There is some extra footage that wasn't included in the final movie (it's on Disk 2 of the Criterion DVD release) that shows that scene was originally longer. There are others on the train discussing the Lord Risley scandal and Maurice looks uncomfortable and removes himself from the conversation. The older man watches Maurice closely, and puts two and two together. The others eventually leave and he makes advances on Maurice.
I agree, that scene is a little strange the way it was edited. It does make you wonder how the older man knew.
The first cut of the movie was about three hours. They didn't quite manage all of the transitions smoothly in this film.
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