The appreciative bystander lurched forward and flung an arm over
his shoulder, then, peering in at the girl, exclaimed: "Good,
wasn't it? I had a horse once, an' I know. You're a'right, m'
frien'. Let's go get another one."

Lorelei's cab got under way at last, but barely in time, for a
crowd was assembling. She sank back weakly, and her last glimpse
showed Wharton arm-in-arm with the tipsy wayfarer.

Not until she was safely inside her little apartment, with the
chain on the door, did she surrender; then she burst into a
trembling, choking fit of laughter. But her estimate of Wharton
had risen, and for the first time he seemed not entirely bad.




CHAPTER XIII


Jimmy Knight felt his sister's desertion quite as keenly as did
his mother and father, for his schemes, though inchoate, were
ambitious, and his heart was set upon them. Lorelei's obstinacy
was exasperating--a woman's unaccountable freakishness.

He confided his disappointment to Max Melcher. "It's pretty
tough," complained Jimmy. "I had Merkle going, but she crabbed it.
Then just as that boob Wharton was getting daffier over her every
day she gets her back up and the whole thing is cold."