"Are you speaking on Mrs. Briggs's behalf or your own?" asked Max.
She met his eyes with a feeling of reluctance. "Well, I do hate quarrelling," she said.
"I never quarrel," said Max placidly.
"Oh, but you do!" she exclaimed. "How can you say such a thing?"
"No, I don't!" said Max. "I go my own way, that's all. If anyone tries to stop me, well, they get knocked down and trampled on. I don't call that quarrelling. It simply happens in the natural course of things."
"No wonder people don't like you!" said Olga.
"Don't you like me?" said Max.
He put the question with obvious indifference, yet his green eyes still studied her critically. Olga poured out some water with a hand so shaky that it splashed over. He reached forward and dabbed it up with his table-napkin.
"Well?" he said.
"I don't know," she murmured somewhat incoherently.