He watched Marie as she wallowed the thick slices in yellow corn-meal, and listened to the first hissing sputter of them as they were dropped into the hot grease of the skillet.

And the odour of the fish, taken only yesterday from the net which Thoreau kept in the frozen lake, made him hungry.

This was unusual.

It was unexpected as other things that had happened.

It puzzled him.
He returned to his room, with a suspicion in his mind that he should put on a collar and tie, and his coat.