s own line--that he's been
spoilt. As if everybody couldn't do something!"

"Ah! That's the point," said Nick sententiously. "Everybody can, but it
isn't everybody who does. Now this young man apparently knows how to
make the most of his opportunities. He plays a rattling hand at bridge,
by the way."

"I wonder if he cheats," said Olga. "I'm sure he's quite unscrupulous."

Nick turned his head, and surveyed her from under his restless eyelids.
"I begin to think you must be falling in love with the young man," he
observed.

"Don't be absurd, Nick!" Olga did not even trouble to look up. She was
stitching with neat rapidity.

"I'm not. That's just how my wife fell in love with me. I assure you it
often begins that way." Nick shook his head wisely. "I should take steps
to be nice to him if I were you, before the mischief spreads."

Olga tossed her head. She was slightly flushed. "I shall never make a
fool of myself over any man, Nick," she said. "I'm quite determined on
that point."

"Dear, dear!" said Nick. "How old did you say you were?"

"I am woman enough to know my own mind," said Olga.

"Heaven forbid!" said Nick. "You wouldn't be a woman at all if you did
that."

"I don't think you are a good judge on that subject, Nick," remarked his
niece judiciously. "In fact, even Dr. Wyndham knows better than that. I
assure you the antipathy is quite mutual. He regards everyone who isn't
desperately ill as superfluous and uninteresting. He was absolutely
disappointed the other day because, when I slipped on the stairs, I
didn't break any bones."

"What a fiend!" said Nick.

"And yet Dad likes him," said Olga. "I can't understand it. The poor
people like him too in a way. Isn't it odd? They seem to have such faith
in him."

"I believe Jim has faith in him," remarked Nick. "He wouldn't turn him
loose on his patients if he hadn't."

"Of course, Sir Kersley Whitton recommended him," conceded Olga. "And he
is an absolutely wonderful man, Dad says. He calls him the greatest
medicine-man in England. He took up Max Wyndham years ago, when he was
only a medical student. And he has been like a father to him ever
since. In fact, I don't believe Dr. Wyndham would ever have come here if
Sir Kersley hadn't made him. He was overworked and wouldn't take a rest,
so Sir Kersley literally forced him to come and be Dad's assistant for a
while. He told Dad that he was too brilliant a man to stay long in the
country, and Dad gather