Strong lifted a fatherly forefinger. "Naughty naughty! Shouldn' call brother fool. Danger hell fire if you call brother fool. Nev' min', Recky--we un'stand each other. Two fools. I'm go'n behave." He knocked his derby in the back so it rested on his nose, stuck his chin up to meet it, and started off in the most unmistakable semblance of a tipsy man to be met anywhere. "See me behavin'?" he remarked sidewise, with a gleam of rollicking deviltry out of his eyes. Christopher Street ferry was reached safely by a miracle, and inside the ferry-house Strong made a bee line for a truck and threw his great body full length upon it with a loud yawn of joy. "So tired," he remarked. "Go'n have good nap now," and he closed his eyes peacefully. "See here, Billy, this won't do. You said you had to meet a girl--what about that?" [Illustration: "So tired" he remarked. "Go'n have good nap now"] "Oh, tha's all right," Billy agreed easily. "You meet girl--tell her you got me drunk," and he turned over and prepared for slumber. Strenuous argument was necessary to rouse him even to half a sense of responsibility. "Recky, dear, you--'noy me," he said with severity, coming to a sitting position and contemplating Rex with mild displeasure. "What kin' girl? Why, jes' girly-girl. Lovely blue-eyed girly-girl--kind of girl--colored hair,"--he swept his hand descriptively over his own black locks. "Wears sort of--skirts, you know--you 'member the kind. All of 'em same thing--well, she wears 'em too. Tha's all," and he dropped heavily back to the truck and retired into his coat collar. Rex shook him. "That won't do, Billy. I can't pick out a girl on that. Will there be a chaperone with her?" "No!" thundered Billy. "How is a girl allowed to go to the theater with you without a chaperone?" inquired Rex incredulously. "This is New York." Strong brought down his fist. "Death to chaperones! _A bas les chaperones!_ Don't you think girl's mother trust her to me? Look at me! I'll be chaperone to tha' girl, and father, 'n' mother, 'n' a few uncles and aunts." He threw his arm out with a gesture which comprised the universe. "I'll be all the world to tha' girl. You go meet her 'n' tell her you got me drunk," he concluded with a radiant smile. Rex considered. There seemed to be enough method in Strong's madness to justify the belief that he had an engagement. If so, he must by all means wait and trust to luck to pick out the "lovely blue-eyed girlie" who was the "party of the other part," and hope for an inspiration as to what to tell her. She might be with or without a chaperone, she might be any variety of the species, but Strong seemed to be quite clear that she had blue eyes.