midday
And for some occult reason -- the more serious , perhaps , because it had no obvious or logical presumption to the world generally -- Barker was particularly favored . He quickened his pace , and as the flagstaff of the Boomville Hotel rose before him in the little hollow , he seriously debated whether he had not better go to the bank first , deposit his shares , and get a small advance on them to buy a new necktie or a `` boiled shirt '' in which to present himself to Miss Kitty ; but , remembering that he had partly given his word to Demorest that he would keep his shares intact for the present , he abandoned this project , probably from the fact that his projected confidence with Kitty was already a violation of Demorest 's injunctions of secrecy , and his conscience was sufficiently burdened with that breach of faith . But when he reached the hotel , a strange trepidation overcame him . The dining-room was at its slack water , between the ebb of breakfast and before the flow of the preparation for the midday meal . He could not have his interview with Kitty in that dreary waste of reversed chairs and bare trestlelike tables , and she was possibly engaged in her household duties . But Miss Kitty had already seen him cross the road , and had lounged into the dining-room with an artfully simulated air of casually examining it . At the unexpected vision of his hopes , arrayed in the sweetest and freshest of rosebud-sprigged print , his heart faltered .