«Who's he?»
«A person in a book I used to read as a boy.»
«Oh — does he come in “The Last Days of Pompeii”?»
«No — another book — I daresay you escaped it. It's rather dull.»
«I never read much except Henty and Fenimore Cooper at school… But — have I got rather an extra good memory, then?»
«You have a better memory than you credit yourself with.»
«Then why can't I remember all the medical stuff? It all goes out of my head like a sieve.»
«Well, why can't you?» said Lord Peter, standing on the hearthrug and smiling down at his guest.
«Well,» said the young man, «the chaps who examine one don't ask the same sort of questions you do.»
«No?»