Jim's relief came as an explosion.

"There! That's English. You spoke a mouthful that time, Bob, for
she certainly is a beauty bright. But I didn't think you had the
nerve to ask her. If she says yes, you'll be the luckiest man in
New York--the whole town's crazy about her."

"We'll make her say yes," Lilas added, with drunken decision.
"Come, dear, say it." She bent a flushed face toward Lorelei and
laid a loose hand upon her arm. "Well? What's your answer?"

Bob fixed heavy eyes upon his heart's desire and echoed: "Yes.
What d' you say?" More than once in his sober moments he had
pondered such a query, and now that it appeared to have taken
shape without conscious effort, he was not displeased with
himself.

"I say, YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING," Lorelei responded,
curtly.

Now Bob, like all men in his condition, was quite certain that he
was in perfect possession of his faculties, and therefore he very
naturally resented such an absurd assertion. "Don't you b'lieve
it," he protested. "I know what I'm doing, all right, all right."

"A man never speaks his mind until he's ginned," Lilas giggled.

"Righto! I'm not half drunk yet."

Jim urged the suitor on with a nervous laugh, at the same time