not offended or disappointed or surprised.  A bank-account looms up just as big on Fifth Avenue as it does on Amsterdam, and there aren’t any more love matches over there than elsewhere.  I’m not blind to my short-comings, either; there are a lot of bad habits waiting to be acquired by a chap with time and money like me.  I can’t live without booze; I don’t know how to earn a living; I’m a corking spendthrift.  That’s one side.  Balanced against that, I possess—­ let me see—­I possess a fair sense of humor.  Not a very even account, is it?”

For once in his life Bob showed unmistakable self-consciousness; this was, so far as Lorelei knew, his maiden effort to be serious.  He ran on hurriedly:  “What I mean to convey is this:  I have no regrets, no questions to ask, no reproaches.  I got all I expected, and all I was entitled to when I married you.  But it seems that you’ve been cheated, and—­I’m ready to do the square thing.  I’ll step aside and give you another chance, if you say so.”

During this little declaration Lorelei had watched him keenly; she appeared to be seriously weighing his offer.

“I was getting pretty tired of things,” he added, “and I s’pose I’d have wound up in the D. T. parlors of some highly exclusive institution or behind a bath-room door with a gas-tube in my teeth.  But—­I met you, and you went to my head.  I wanted you worse than I ever wanted anything—­worse even than I ever wanted liquor.  And now I have you.  I’ve had you for one day, and that’s something.  I suppose it’s silly to talk about starting over—­I don’t want to reform if I don’t have to; moderation strikes me as an awful cold proposition; but it looks as if reform were indicated if I’m to keep you.  I’m just an album of expensive habits, and—­we’re broke.  Maybe I could—­do something with myself if you took a hand.  It’s a good deal to ask of a girl like you, but”—­he regarded her timidly, then averted his eyes—­“if you cared to try it we might make it go for a while.  And you might get to care for me a little—­if I improve.”  Again he paused hopefully.  “I’ve been as honest as I know how.  Now, won’t you be the same?”

Lorelei roused herself, and spoke with quiet decision.

“I’ll go through to the end, Bob.”

Bob started and uttered an inarticulate word or two; in his face was a light of gladness that went to the girl’s heart.  His name had risen freely to her lips; he felt as if she had laid her hand in his with a declaration of absolute trust.

“You mean that?”

She nodded.

He took her in his arms and kissed her gently; then, feeling her warm against his breast, he burst the bonds that had restrained him up to this moment and covered her face, her neck, her hair with passionate caresses.  For the first time since his delirium of the night before he abandoned himself to the hunger her beauty excited, and she offered him no resistance.

At last she freed herself, and, straightening the disorder of her hair, smiled at him mistily.