Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/122



they had quite vanished, Preston shrugged himself up and tried to consider his situation coolly. Mrs. Varris's action toward him that morning made him fairly sure that the Ely police, at least, would not press their suspicions of him further. So he told himself that he was no worse off now than he had expected to be when he started to amuse himself for the summer alone in England. But, since starting, he had gained more than he was willing to let go again without a struggle.

After their eight days together upon the Britannia he was aware, of course, that he had made himself far more than a mere travelling acquaintance to both Ethel Varris and her mother; and he was fully conscious that Ethel had become to him, even in that short time, 102