Page:Waylaid by Wireless - Balmer - 1909.djvu/31

Rh was for no especial one—least of all, a girl. He merely wished to be with people again, civilized, interesting, and interested people. So he had taken himself to England as the country containing the most concentrated civilization and characteristics most in contrast to his prairies.

Three or four times, when he was a boy, his mother and older sisters had taken him with them to this England and toured him with most eminent propriety through all the cathedral towns. But this time he had come to see England of himself and aright, at last; and he was not to tour the cathedral cities.

In fact, when he got on the boat, he waited with unholy glee for the Mrs. Varris and her daughter, who had places beside his in the dining-salon, to confess their plan of touring those towns. Mrs. Varris was so very like his own mother that he was sure of her as soon as he saw her; so when they became acquainted and she confessed, he was very clever and satirical. But she only laughed and 13