now? I'm going to marry the greatest girl in the world, man! Can
you imagine her accepting me! Oh, boy!!!!!"

With that he does a few little fancy steps around the room, throwing a
twenty-dollar pillow at Alex and a book at me.

This here's a new angle, and Alex grabs him.

"Look here!" he says. "I know you're in a hurry, so I don't want to
hold you up now; but you wanna recover from this here till you land
that contract! You'll lose your job if you don't, and you ain't gonna
start off married life outta work, are you?"

"I should worry!" sings Jared, still one-steppin' about the room. "I
can get another job--forty of 'em! I can get anything at all, now.
She's going to marry me, she's going to marry me!"

[Illustration: "She's going to marry me, she's going to marry me!"]

He dashes for the door, and Alex runs after him.

"What time is the appointment with the big steel men?" he shrieks in
his ear.

"What's a big steel man to me?" asks Jared, struggling to get away.
"What's anything? I'll bet she would have accepted me long ago if--"

"What time is that conference?" howls Alex.

"I care not!" sings Jared, throwing the phone book up in the air, and a
idiotic grin at me. "I'm going to have a quiet wedding and--"

I thought Alex was gonna choke him!

Personally, I developed a bad case of the hystericals.

"The time?" screams Alex.

"Eleven o'clock," says Jared.

"Will you promise me on your word of honor to meet me at that hotel at
ten to-morrow, in view of what I done for you?" says Alex.

"Sure!" hollers Jared. "I'll promise anything! Look what's been
promised to me!"

With that he breaks away from Alex and dives out the door.

Alex comes back and sinks down into a chair, wipin' off his fevered
brow with a handkerchief.

"That baby is a plain nut!" I remarks.

"Whew!" pants Alex. "I started somethin' now, that's sure! Still, I
don't blame the boy. I felt the same way when Eve claimed she'd wed
me, and I guess you did too when Alice went temporarily insane and
brung you into the family. If I can keep him keyed up to that pitch
to-morrow, he'll land that contract, and I'll land your five thousand!"

"He won't land nothin'!" I says. "He's gone nutty now, and you'll be
lucky if he shows up at all. This here's _one_ bet I win!"

"Yeh?" snaps Alex, gettin' up and reachin' for his hat. "D'ye wanna
take five thousand more of it?"

"No!" I says. "Good night!"

At nine forty-five th