"Oh well, tell him ... Oh no—, all right—I'll go."
CHAPTER III
VAN BUREN
"It's extremely kind of you, Harry, to let me come around like this in the morning. I dare say you want to be working sometimes. I'm really afraid of being in the way, but I was rather at a loose end this morning and I wanted to have a talk with you," said Van Buren apologetically.
"Rot. Awfully glad to see you, old chap. Have a cigarette?"
"Thanks, Harry, no. I find I'm very much better if I don't smoke till after tea.... We're intimate friends now, and yet you never call me anything but my surname, or ['old chap']. That reminds me, there's a little request I'd like to make of you, Harry."
"What's that?"
"Call me Matthew—no, call me plain Mat. It would give me real pleasure."