She frowned. He was the only person in her world who ever made her take
the trouble to explain herself, and he did it upon every possible
occasion, with unvarying regularity. She hated him for it very
thoroughly, but she always had to yield.

"Why did you go to the Campions'?" she asked, barely restraining her
irritation.

"That, fair lady," he coolly responded, "is a question which with regret
I must decline to answer."

Olga flushed. "How absurd!" she said quickly. "Dad would tell me like a
shot."

"I am not Dad," said the doctor's assistant, with unruffled urbanity.
"Moreover, fair lady--"

"I prefer to be called by my name if you have no objection, Dr.
Wyndham," cut in Olga, with rising wrath.

He smiled at something over her head. "Thank you, Olga. It saves trouble
certainly. Would you like to call me by mine? Max is what I generally
answer to."

Olga turned a vivid scarlet. "I am Miss Ratcliffe to you," she said.

He accepted the rebuff with unimpaired equanimity. "I thought it must be
too good to be true. Pardon my presumption! When you are as old as I am
you will realize how little it really matters. You are genuinely angry,
I suppose? Not pretending?"