"Just got up when the freight pulled in.

Made so blamed much noise it woke me.

I seem to need a good deal of sleep." He coughed behind his hand, and lingered inside the door.

It was so unusual for Miss Georgie to make conversation with him that Saunders was almost pitifully eager to be agreeable.
"If it didn't sound cruel, this weather," said Miss Georgie lightly, still looking at him--or, more particularly, at the crumpled, soiled collar of his coarse blue shirt--"I'd advise you to get out of Hartley once a day, if it was no more than to take a walk.

Though to be sure," she smiled, "the prospect is not inviting, to say the least.