Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/105



startled young Preston awake eight hours later. He had not followed to his room when the girl left him late the night before. He had waited about in the smoking-room with the men; and, even after that, he had delayed before retiring, so that he knew something must have awakened him, though he heard nothing as he sat up in bed.

The horizontal rays of the morning sun streamed in through his open windows, but they had not moved about far enough to strike his pillow. Besides, he thought some soft sound had aroused him; but he was a little confused. He had slept very soundly and had been dreaming; so he found it difficult to separate the real from the fancied in the first moment of consciousness.

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