"Yes," said Sproatly, "I fancy it was."
"But I sent you to make sure."
"The fact is I didn't go in," said Sproatly, uneasily. "There's somebody in the room already."
"Any of the boys would go out if they knew we wanted it."
"Oh yes," said Sproatly. "Still, you see, it's only a small room, and one of them has been smoking."
Mrs. Hastings flashed a keen glance at him, and then smiled in a manner he did not like. It suggested that while she yielded to his objections in the meanwhile she had by no means abandoned the subject.
"Well," she said, "what shall we do until supper? This stove won't draw properly, and I don't feel inclined to sit shivering here."
Then Sproatly was seized by what proved to be a singularly unfortunate inspiration.
"It's really not snowing much, and we'll go down to the depôt and watch the Atlantic express come in," he suggested. "It's one of the things everybody does."
This was, as a matter of fact, correct. There are not many amusements open to the inhabitants of the smaller settlements along the railroad track, and the arrival of the infrequent trains is a source of unflagging interest to most of them. Mrs. Hastings fell in with the suggestion, and Sproatly was congratulating himself upon his diplomacy when Agatha stopped as they reached the door of the hotel.