“Forgive me,” he said with careful formality. “But these are thing one does not speak of with strangers.”
“I’m sorry,” Maxine said with a smile. “You don’t seem to know who I am. I had assumed Mr. Stilman had informed you before you arrived. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Maxine Pruet, though you may have heard me referred to simply as ‘Max.'”
The man stared at her for a moment, then seemed to remember himself and sprang to his feet.
“I didn’t know. My superior did indeed instruct me to convey his compliments,” he intoned with a stiff bow from the waist. “Forgive me, but I only received my orders recently, and they were very brief and sketchy. I thought … that is, I wasn’t told …”
“-that I was a woman?” Maxine smiled. “I’m not surprised, really. Your organization is even more rooted in old chauvinisms than my own. It stands to reason that if my name came up in conversation, my gender would be tactfully omitted.”
She returned his bow with a slow nod of her head. “And who might you be?”
“I … my name within our organization is Jonesy.”
“Jonesy?” Laverna blurted in surprise from her place in the corner.
The man glanced at her and gave a brief, rueful smile.
“I travel extensively for our organization,” he explained, “and it was thought that the name ‘Jonesy’ would be easier for outsiders to pronounce and remember than the one which was more ethnically correct.”
“An interesting theory,” Maxine observed. “It does, however, bring us back to my original question. What brings you to Lorelei, Mr. Jonesy? Business or pleasure?”