"A liberty he interpreted as poetic licence."
"Nothing of the sort. He absolutely declined the job."
"Why?"
"Well—the marvellous boy informed me that he was too intimate with the lady to write about her. At any rate with that noble impartiality which distinguishes the utterances of The Planet."
"Steady, man. He never told ye that!" said Mackinnon.
"I didn't say he told me, I said he informed me."
"And whar's the differ'nce? I don't see it at all."
"Trepan him, trepan him."
Stables took out his penknife and indicated by dumb show a surgical operation on Mackinnon's dome-like head.
"I gathered it," continued Maddox suavely, "from his manner. I culled his young thought like a flower."