"Clara Belle Kinney," says I.
"Why, I never heard of any such person," says she.
"Oh, yes, you have," says I. "Alias Mrs. Ben Tupper."
Course, I had some job convincin' her I wasn't joshin'; and even after I'd sketched out the whole story, and showed her that Clara Belle's past wasn't anything to really shudder over, Vee is still doubtful.
"But can she sing now?" she asks.
"What's the odds," says I, "if a lot of them old-timers are willin' to pay to hear her try?"
Vee shakes her head and suggests that we go up and talk it over with Mr. and Mrs. Robert. Which we does.
"But if she has been off the stage for twenty years," suggests Mrs. Robert, "perhaps she wouldn't attempt it."
"I'll bet she would for Vee," says I. "Any way, she wouldn't feel sore at being asked And if you could sting a bunch of twenty or thirty for a hundred apiece—— "
"Just fancy!" says Mrs. Robert, drawin' in a long breath and doin' rapid-fire mental arithmetic. "Verona, let's drive right over and see her at once."