The San Francisco call., 1905-02-26
CHAPTER Nv.

=
milan Club camp. his mornings in bed,
the remaining hours wandering about
with his betrOthed: and felt that alto
gether life was not understood by the
pessimists. England, with the strug-
giles and cares and responsibilities IT
held in store for him. seemed to exist
only between the rusty covers OF his
tory. and life thing 10 be dawdled
away in 4 wonderful forest, where the
very air made man hate the thought
of all that was hard and ugly and too
serious
Give was something more than Gu
riOuS to see Miss Belmont again, but
hardly knew whether he ought to so
>tO her house or not. 1t was possible
that she expected him TO decline an
invitation prOffered before an unpleaS-
ant adventure; but unless he pleaded
sudden illness he did not see his way
out of acceptance On Saturday, how
ever. Mary received d nate from the
chatelaine' of Casa del NOrte, remind
ing her of the dinner and of her prom
ise to bring MIR. Give.
Charley Rollins tells me that he is
the best all-round Englishman he has
ever known" the note concluded; mot
the least bit of cad. / am most
anxious to meet him."
Mary laughed as she handed the note
to Give. IF any other woman had
written that I'd never enter her house
again. But, somehow. you let her say
and do exactly what she chooses. The
trouble is that the only Enghshmen
she has met have been fortune hunters
When We are married I'll ask her over
to visit us, and let her meet men who
are almost as perfect as you are
Give said, Yes. dear absently-
Three days of unshifting devotion had
blunted the fine point of his content
The next day Mary was prostrate
with one CT the severe headaches to
which she was subject. and sent Give
off with Charley Rollins TO the dinner
GO. go, my boy, Mr. Gordon had
said to him, when Give had displayed
a decent amount of reluctance. She'll
be too i'll to- be spoken to for twenty
four hours You could do no good by
hanging round
During the hours drive through the
redwoods Give said to Rollins:
You are > great friend of Miss Bel
mont, are You nOt?
Il am. for a fact
Have you known her iOng?'
she nearly scratched my eyes out
whens she was three and i five. I've
adOred her ever since, and think the
reason I've been able to hang ON sue
cessfully is because I've never pro-
posed TO her..
I've heard several opinions Of her.
and I'd like yours. / can't say that.
so far, I've met any one likely to
understand her. You should, particu-
larly as you have never made love to
her.
Rollins half closed his shrewd, dark
eyes and tilted his hat over his nose.
Like all San Francisco men, he looked
carelessly dressed, although in evening
clothes, and carried himself badly:
but his face was clear and refined, his
hair and beard trinity cut
Del hof
the club called his "summing-up
voice" =" has the genius of California in
her, like Sibyl SandersCI and a dozen
others l could mention without stop
ping to think, although they would be
mere names to you. You see. it is
like this: all sorts Of men came here
in early days-pOOr men of good fam
lily, who had failed at home, or were
too proud to work there; desperadOes,
adventuTerS, men of middle life and
broken fortunes-aIi of them expecting
everything from the new land, and
ready 10 tear the heart out OF any one
who got in their way. 1t was every
man for himself and the devil take
the hindmost- Many succeeded Some
Of their methods will not bear the
fierce light of history. That savage
spirit, that instinct to trample to a
goal over anything or anybody. that
intolerance of restraint, still fingers in
the blood of many of the present gem
GRAFTON, although, strangely enough,
it has given distincter individuality
TO the women than To the men. OF
course, there are CalifOrnianS and ALI
fOrnianS. 1t is always a mistake to
generalize too freely, but the type I
speak of is the most significant. al
though you will find no Californian
exactly like any other American. This
is the land of the composite. All
America and all Europe have emptied
themselves into it, God knows what
it will sift down to eventually--the
commonplace, probably As for Hell
ena Belmont. Jack Belmont, her father,
came here in the fiftieS and hung up
his Shingle He was one of the clever
est lawyers the State has had He
rarely drew a sober breath, and was
never seen to stagger; he was an in
veterate gambler and a terror with
women. He married a Miss Lowell
of Boston, who came out here on a
vista beautiful girl and God knows
what she went through with him. You
may be surprised that she married
him. / may have given you the inn
preston that he was a cowboy in a
red shirt and sombrero. Jack Bel
mont was one of the most elegant
men this State has ever seen, a gentle
man when he was drunkest, and the
idol of the Southern set, strong con-
tlngent mere. Inere you nave the ele-
ments of which Helena Belmont is
made up. She has the blood of Cava-
liers and ROundheads in her veinss
she grew up amidst the clash of the
South against the North, for no two
people could ever have been more
minated than her mother and fathers
and she was born in California, nur-
tured on it's new savage traditions,
and mentally and temperamentally
fitted TO draw in twice her measure
of its atmosphere. She does what she
pleases, because she would never know
if she were beaten, has a tremendous
personality and "a million dollars.
Here We are
CHAPTER v.
The forest had ended abruptly.
They had come upon a large low
adobe house on plateau, looking
down over q shelving fahle-land uDOn