That is sentence referring to the future
The class applauded wildly, but Felix had already stopped listening and returned to his sketch of Simone. this means that felix doesn't care about jamal's speech, even though he immediately captivated the audience. he would rather sketch simone than applaud for jamal
I think that the answer is C.
I might be wrong.
Im not sure what the question your asking but im going to go with c.