"I didn't scorch," declared Olga, stung by this injustice. "I'm not such
an idiot. You seem to think I haven't any sense at all!"

"My thoughts are my own," said Max. "Why didn't you say you were coming?
You could have motored over with me."

"I didn't so much as know you would be in this direction. How could I?"
said Olga. "And even if I had known--" she, paused.

"You would have preferred sunstroke?" he suggested.

"That I can quite believe. Well, here is the book!" He swung his legs
off the sofa. "I dropped in to fetch it myself, as your good uncle
seemed to want it, and then became so absorbed in its pages that I
couldn't put it down. We seem to have a rotten Constitution altogether.
Wonder whose fault it is."

Olga took the book with a slight, contemptuous glance. That he had been
interested in the subject for a single moment she did not believe. She
wondered that he deemed it worth his while to feign interest.

"Are you taking a holiday to-day?" she enquired bluntly.

He smiled at that. "I cut off an old man's toe at the cottage hospital
this morning, vaccinated four babies, pulled out a tooth, and dressed a
scald. What more would you have? I suppose you don't want to be
vaccinated by any chance?"

Olga passed the flippant question over. "It's a half-holiday then, is