gleaming. "I was
laughing at something else. It suddenly occurred to me, while you were
spinning your foolish theory, how _flattered_ Tracey would have been if
Flora had confessed to him Saturday night that she had killed Nita
because she was jealous!"

"Which was _not_ my theory, if you remember!" Dundee retorted. "But why
is the idea so amusing? Deep in his heart, I suppose any man would
really be a bit flattered if his wife loved him enough to be that
jealous."

"You don't know Tracey Miles as well as I do," Penny assured him, her
eyes still mirthful. "He's really a dear, in spite of being a dreadful
bore most of the time, but the truth is, Tracey hasn't an atom of sex
appeal, and he _must_ realize it.... Of course we girls have all
pampered his poor little ego by pretending to be crazy about him and
terribly envious that it was Flora who got him--"

"But Flora Hackett _did_ marry him," Dundee interrupted. "She must have
been a beautiful girl, and she was certainly rich enough to get any man
she wanted--"

"You would think so, wouldn't you?" Penny agreed, her tongue loosened by
relief. "I was only twelve years old when Flora Hackett made her debut,
but a twelve-year-old has big ears and keen eyes. It is true that Flora
was beautiful and rich, but--well, there was something queer about her.
She was simply crazy to get married, and if a man danced with her as
many as three times in an evening she literally seized upon him and
tried to drag him to the altar.... Her eagerness and her intensity
repelled every man who was in the least attracted to her, and I think
she was beginning to be frightened to death that she wouldn't get
married at all, when she happened to meet Tracey, who had just got a job
as salesman in her father's business. She began to rush him--there's no
other word for it--and none of the other girls minded a bit, because,
without Flora, Tracey would have been the perfect male wallflower. They
became engaged almost right away, and were married six months or so
later. All the girls freely prophesied that even Tracey, flattered by
her passion for him as he so evidently was, would get tired of it, but
he didn't, and there were three marriages in 'the crowd' that June."

"Three?" Dundee repeated absently, for his interest was waning.

"Yes.... Lois Morrow and Peter Dunlap; Johnny Drake and Carolyn Swann;
and Tracey and Flora," Penny answered. "Although I was thirteen then and
really too old for the rol