She did not resist him, for she could not. He had her a helpless captive before she could even begin. Perhaps she might not have done so in any case. It was a point she never was able to decide. But from the moment his lips met hers the battle was over. With or without her will her lips clung to his; the flame of his passion kindled an answering flame in her; and the love which she had striven so desperately to restrain leaped forth to him in wild, exultant freedom, so that she forgot all the world beside.
* * * * *
"So that's settled!" said Max a little later into the flushed face that lay against his shoulder. "It's taken a mighty long time to make you see reason."
"It isn't reason," said Olga faintly. "And 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.