contribution to the headliners was there from the first tap
of the bell.

Vee says she actually wept on her shoulder when the proposition was
sprung on her. Seems she'd been livin' in Harbor Hills for nearly three
years without havin' been let in on a thing--with nobody callin' on her,
or even noddin' as she drove by. Most of her neighbors was a lot
younger, folks who barely remembered that there had been such a party as
Clara Belle Kinney, and who couldn't have told whether she'd been a
singer or a bareback rider. They only knew her as a dumpy freakish
dressed old girl whose drugged hair was turnin' gray.

"Of course," she says, sort of timid and trembly, "I have kept up my
singing as well as I could. Mr. Tupper likes to have me. But I know my
voice isn't what it was once. It's dear of you to ask me, though,
and--and I'll do my best."

I don't take any credit for fillin' that double row of wicker chairs we
put down front and had the nerve to ask that hold-up price for. When the
word was passed around that Clara Belle Kinney was to be among the
performers, they almost mobbed me for tickets. Why, I collected from
two-thirds of the Corrugated directors without turnin' a hand, and for
two days there about all I did was answer 'phone calls from Broad Street
and the clubs--brokers, bank presidents, and so on, who wanted to know
if there was any left.

A fine bunch of silver-tops they was, too, when we got 'em all lined up.
You wouldn't have suspected it of some of them dignified old scouts,
either. Back of 'em, fillin' every corner of the long room and spillin'
out into the big hall, was the top crust of our local smart set, come to
hear Farrar at close range.

Yep, Geraldine made quite a hit. Nothing strange about that. And that
piece from "Madame Butterfly" she gave just brought 'em right up on
their toes. But say, you should hear what breaks loose when it's
announced that the third number will be an old favorite revival by Clara
Belle Kinney. That's all the name we gave. What if most of the audience
was simply starin' puzzled and stretchin' their necks to see who was
comin'? Them old boys down front seemed to know what they was howlin'
about.

Yes, Clara Belle does show up a bit husky in evenin' dress. Talk about
elbow dimples! And I was wishin' she'd forgot to do her hair that
antique way, all piled up on her head, with a few coy ringlets over one
ear. But she'd landscaped her facial scenery artistic, and she sure