"Never mind," he said, trying to smile.

"After all, it's of no real consequence." "I don't know if you'll find it any consolation to be told that that sort of thing is by no means uncommon," said Panton reflectively.
"People, especially women, whose minds for any reason have become just a little unhinged, often take that sort of strange dislike to another human being.

Sometimes for no reason at all.

Every medical man would tell you of half-a-dozen such cases within his own knowledge.
Fortunately, such half-insane people generally choose a noted man--the Prime Minister, for instance, or whoever happens to be very much in the public eye.

If the persecution becomes quite intolerable there's a police-court case--or the individual is quite properly certified as insane." And then something peculiar and untoward happened to Lionel Varick.