It's the sort of reassurance that ought to smooth various bristled hackles. Who wouldn't be relieved enough to receive a pat on the head over some more uncomfortable or finite alternative, and so forget whatever other qualms they might have had otherwise?

"Don't do that."

Mr. Ralston, apparently.

"Laugh all you like at anyone else, but I don't enjoy being played with," he says, balancing the cigarette on the ashtray's edge. "I take it very personally."