Max nodded without speaking.
"And how long have you known?"
"About a month."
"But you knew them before then?"
Max looked down at him with a slight gesture that passed unexplained.
"As long as I have known the Ratcliffes," he said.
"It must have been something of a shock to you," suggested Nick.
Max's jaw hardened. "I was infinitely more interested in her when I knew," he said.
"Really?" said Nick.
"Yes, really." Max spoke with finality. "I assure you I am not impressionable," he added a moment later with the cynical twist of the lips that Olga knew so well. "And I never play with fire. That form of amusement doesn't attract me."
A sudden humorous glitter shone between Nick's half-closed eyelids. "But even serious people burn their fingers sometimes," he observed. "I presume you haven't proposed yet?"