Many of them moved mischievously about the decks, subtly exaggerating and further distorting the rumors which had already been vaguely diffused, till all the first cabin was properly primed either to impatience, hope, or apprehension. And, under the cohesive influence of the news, the passengers had begun to draw together in close little groups.
"Well, Mr. Preston?" the girl greeted the young American brightly, as at last he returned to the deck an hour or so later. "You see," she nodded down the frankly attentive lines of people in their deck chairs, "we are all clearly expecting something from you! Really, I never knew such commotion on shipboard as there is over this—even among the English. And half the women are positively afraid. Wild stories are going about."
"What kind?" Preston asked, rubbing his hands together gleefully.
"Oh, of all sorts. I very much more than half suspect that your 'smoking-room' cliques, who have been getting up the pools, are not
242
