oh, Max, what--what am I to
say to Noel?"

Max's one-sided smile appeared. "I should just say, 'Thank you kindly,
sir,' if it were me. There's nothing else left to say."

"Oh, but there is!" she protested.

"There isn't," said Max. "He is coming over to congratulate us
to-morrow."

"Max!" She opened her eyes wide and lifted her head. "Max, you don't
mean----"

"Yes, I do," said Max imperturbably. "Why do you suppose I came tearing
down here to-night, leaving Kersley to kill all my patients as well as
his own?"

"Not--surely--to see me?" said Olga, wonderingly.

He laughed grimly. "No. It was to see Noel. Odd how we both put him
first, isn't it? The young cub sent me a message that brought me down
post-haste, expecting to find him in a state of collapse. Instead of
which I found him gaily awaiting me at the station to tell me he had run
himself out--or some bosh of the kind--and it was now my innings, and I
was to go in and win. On my soul, Olga, he was enjoying himself up to
the hilt."

"But why didn't you tell me this before?" said Olga quickly.

Max's mouth went up a little higher. "Various reasons, fair lady."

"Don't be horrid!" she protested, giving him a shake. "And how did it
happen? How did he come to know anything? I haven't seen him to-day. It
must have been Nick!"

"Yes. I'm going to throttle Nick presently. I've often wanted to. After
which I shall turn him into a mummy and send him to India to be
worshipped as the little god of intrigue. I daresay he'll get on all
right in that capacity. It ought to suit him down to the ground. He's a
born meddler."

"How absurd you are!" Olga laughed in spite of herself. "Where is Nick?
Don't you think we had better go and find him?"

It was at this point that the handle of the door was turned
ostentatiously the wrong way, struggled with, sworn at, and finally put
right.

"May I come in?" said Nick, briskly opening the door. "Muriel and I
have finished dinner. We knew you wouldn't be wanting any."

"Nick!" Olga exclaimed. "I'm sure you haven't!"

"All right, we haven't," said Nick. "That is to say, we have saved you a
little in case you were prosaic enough to want it. Max, my son, your
presence here is an honour for which I have scarcely made fit
preparation, but I am none the less proud to entertain you, and as your
uncle-in-law elect I bid you welcome."

He held out his hand which Max took with a dry, "Thanks! One can't scrag
a man under his own