In 1897 Ethel went with William Gillette to London to play Miss Kittridge in Gillette's "Secret Service". She was about to return to the States with Gillette's troupe when Henry Irving and Ellen Terry offered her the role of Annette in "The Bells". A full London tour was on and, before it was over, Ethel created, on New Year's Day 1898, Euphrosine in "Peter the Great" at the Lyceum, the play having been written by Irving's son, Laurence. Men everywhere were smitten with Ethel, most notably Winston Churchill, who asked her to marry him. Not wishing to be a politician's wife, she refused. Winston, years later, married Clementine Hozier, a ravishing beauty who looked very much like Ethel. Winston and Ethel remained friends until the end of her life. Their "romance" was their own little secret until his son let the cat out of the bag 63 years after it happened.