Everybody had a Good Word for her. She traveled with the Thoroughbreds,
and was always Among Those Present; so it was hard to understand why she
hadn't Married. Other Girls not as Good-Looking or Accomplished had been
grabbed off while they were Buds. Already some of them were beginning to
act as Chaperons for Clara. They were keeping Tab on Clara's Age, too,
and began to think that she would land on the Bargain Counter, and have
to be satisfied with a Widower who wore a Toupee and dyed his Eyebrows.

Clara was somewhat of a Mind-Reader. She knew that the Friends of her
Youth were predicting a Hard Finish for her, so she decided to Fool
them. And she knew that it Behooved her to Catch On before the Children
started in to call her Auntie.

Now it is not to be inferred that Clara was what the Underwriters call a
Bad Risk. She never had been a Drug on the Market. When she went to a
Hop she did not have to wait for Ladies' Choice in order to swing into
the Mazy. In fact, she had been Engaged now and then, just for Practice,
and she had received Offers from some of the holdover Bachelors who went
around Proposing from Force of Habit. But Clara was not out for any man
who had been Turned Down elsewhere. She wanted the Right Kind, and she
was going to do the Picking herself.

Having made an Inventory of the Possibilities, she selected the
Treasurer of the Shoe Factory, and decided that she could Love him
without Straining herself. He was about her age, and was almost as
good-looking as a Gibson Man, and had A1 Prospects. It would be no Easy
Job to Land him, however, because the Competition was very keen and he
was Wary, trying to be a Kind Friend to every Girl he knew, but playing
no Favorites. He kept the Parents guessing. He had been Exposed to
Matrimony so often without being Taken Down, that he was generally