He went to his room with another disturbance added to the many that
disquieted him. Just as certainly as if his mother had put it into
words he knew she had selected this Lightener girl to be Mrs.
Bonbright Foote VII--and the mother of Bonbright Foote VIII.

"Confound it," he said, "it's started already. ... Dam Bonbright
Foote VIII!"




CHAPTER III


Bonbright dressed with a consciousness that he was to be on
exhibition. He wondered if the girl had done the same; if she, too,
knew why she was there and that it was her duty to make a favorable
impression on him, as it was his duty to attract her. It was
embarrassing. For a young man of twenty-three to realize that his
family expects him to make himself alluring to a desirable future
wife whom he has never seen is not calculated to soothe his nerves or
mantle him with calmness. He felt silly.

However, here HE was, and there SHE would be. There was nothing for
it but to put his best foot forward, now he was caught for the event,
but he vowed it would require more than ordinary skill to entrap him
for another similar occasion. It seemed to him at the moment that the
main object of his life thenceforward would be, as he expressed it,
"to duck" Miss Lightener.