Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/156

Rh we compromised you by taking you into our confidence and then directly naming you to the police as the one who might have robbed us, there was really nothing against you. So we must feel entirely responsible for the embarrassments to which, we know, you have since been subjected. And, unless you will allow us to help clear up the further difficulties which threaten you, we shall feel ourselves very much more to blame."

"But, Mrs. Varris—"

"Please, Mr. Preston, do not evade for our sakes. Really," she rebuked, "if you had not tried to spare us before from the results of our own action, and had gone on with us for a few days from Ely, as we wished, you would have saved yourself and us, too, a great deal of discomfort."

"Truly, Mrs. Varris, I am sorry; but I did not imagine—"

"Oh, ours was nothing, Mr. Preston! But you—tell me, have you not been seriously embarrassed many times in these last weeks?"

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