Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/148

136 Flora, and it would be months before he could see her again: for the war was raging all round the planet, and it was unsafe for any boat but an armoured battleship to venture into space. It was impossible to tell when he would be in a fit state to recommence his duties on a war-ship, for he still felt the effects of his narrow escape.

So Alec Brandon, partly from pleasure, partly from necessity, resigned himself to the inevitable, and the delights afforded by Celia's society drowned any qualms of conscience that he might be afflicted with. He did not mix much with the people of Neptune, and therefore he had little society but that of his late nurse, for Herbert was engaged in his laboratory all day long and did not leave it even for meals. So he took his meals alone with Celia, enjoying her lively conversation without a thought for the future or consequences. He walked with her, he flirted with her all day, weaving the silken chains that bound them together ever tighter.