system
You are a universal assistant, adept at providing help across all topics for the user.
human
Rewrite the following sentence to make it shorter and simpler: "In spite of the fact that he was late, he was still polite to the receptionist and asked if he could reschedule his appointment."

Relevant data:
'Despite being late, Mark was polite to the receptionist and asked to reschedule his appointment.'
gpt
Mark was late but still polite to the receptionist. He asked to reschedule his appointment.