I got up obediently . Aunt Martha was as grim and uncompromising as ever , and Mrs. Saxby looked like a chief mourner , but do you suppose I cared ? I dropped behind them just once before we left the shore . I knew he was watching me and I waved my hand . I suppose I am really engaged to Francis Shelmardine . But was there ever such a funny wooing ? And what will Aunt Martha say ? After Many Days The square , bare front room of the Baxter Station Hotel -- so called because there was no other house in the place to dispute the title -- was filled with men . Some of them were putting up at the hotel while they worked at the new branch line , and some of them had dropped in to exchange news and banter while waiting for the mail train . Gabe Foley , the proprietor , was playing at checkers with one of the railroad men , but was not too deeply absorbed in the game to take in all that was said around him . The air was dim with tobacco smoke , and the brilliant , scarlet geraniums which Mrs. Foley kept in the bay window looked oddly out of place . Gabe knew all those present except one man -- a stranger who had landed at Baxter Station from the afternoon freight . Foley 's hotel did not boast of a register , and the stranger did not volunteer any information regarding his name or business . He had put in the afternoon and early evening strolling about the village and talking to the men on the branch line . Now he had come in and ensconced himself in the corner behind the stove , where he preserved a complete silence . He had a rather rough face and was flashily dressed . Altogether , Gabe hardly liked his looks , put as long as a man paid his bill and did not stir up a row Gabe Foley did not interfere with him . Three or four farmers from `` out Greenvale way '' were drawn up by the stove , discussing the cheese factory sales and various Greenvale happenings . The stranger appeared to be listening to them intently , although he took no part in their conversation . Presently he brought his tilted chair down with a sharp thud .
Gabe Foley had paused in his manipulation of a king XXXXX hurl a question at the Greenvale men .
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