The customary scene took place when Felix, late that afternoon, handed his landlady the overdue rent.

Now that the two crisp bills which O'Day owed her lay in her hand, she was ready to pass them back to him if the full payment at all embarrassed him.

Indeed, she had never had a more quiet and decent lodger, and she hoped it didn't mean he was "goin' away," and, if she was rather sharp with him the night before, it was because she had been "that nervous of late." But Felix, ignoring her overtures, only shook his head in a good-natured way.

He would begin packing at once, and the express wagon would be here at six.

She would know it by the white horse which the man was driving.
When his trunks were finished he would put them outside his bedroom door, and please not to forget his mackintosh and leather hat-case which he would leave inside the room.
So the packing began.