noon
No , of course Fannie would not mind ; this last request fixed her companion firmly in her esteem . Any other man of her acquaintance would have removed his collar and proceeded without one , never giving the matter a thought ; in fact , she had been momentarily expecting that this would happen . Now she would have the bliss of taking him home in all the perfection of his toilet as she first beheld him . From that moment she grew more conversational , and his utterance became less jerky , until , when they finally drove up back of the long red brick railway station at Oaklands , a little before noon , she had not only given him a synopsis of local history , but was , in her excitement , vainly trying to recollect what day of the week it was , so that she might judge of the dinner probabilities at home , also if it would be safe to ask him to stay . Fortunately remembering that she saw her father beheading chickens the night before , which guaranteed a substantial meal , she decided it was an absolute duty . As L. Middleton emerged from the baggage room in a fresh collar , even higher than the other , he threw an ornamental bottle of violet water into Fannie 's lap to keep company with the horseshoe . Immediately Hope arose at the combination , and Settled under the left folds of Fannie 's pink shirt waist ; for Middleton seems a distinguished name to one who has been called Penney for twenty-eight years , and romance had never died in the heart under the pink waist for the reason that it was only at this moment being born .