midday
`` She is a coarse-minded person , '' he said . `` I shall never speak to her again . '' This had happened the day before he drove Bates to the station . It was a midday train . The railway platform was comparatively empty , for the season of summer visitors was past . The sun glared with unsoftened light on the painted station building , on the bare boards of the platform , upon the varnished exterior of the passenger cars , and in , through their windows , upon the long rows of red velvet seats . Alec disposed Bates and his bundles on a seat near the stove at the end of one of the almost empty cars .