The Huttig news., 1908-03-07
CHAPTER VII.
A Peep Into Paradise.

In San Francisco after three years
of exile Alfred found home Judge
Harmon made him welcome as a son;
and Alfred did not stay long enough
to discover that other young men
shared with him the judges fatherly
attitude
Mrs. Harmon was a child-hungry
woman. no longer young in years,
though her heart would never forget
25. A favorite, a social authority and
leader, she launched Alfred Immediate
ly and successfully among the people
he most needed to meet. Posing as a
Boston sightseer he was accepted
with a hospitality known only in Ken
lucky and in old San Francisco; and
he found no lack of alluring eyes and
smiles, albeit every woman was d
belle.
Society, fast and feverish, curious,
fascinating, opulent, was the speediest
vehicle by which he could arrive at
his purpose for society in San Fran
cisco was still too new to divorce
itself from the golden enterprises that
made it. His success astonished him
self. Men whose intentions he eS.
pected to learn through patient
acumen talked openly of their affairs
with the railroad men, Even women
made of the Central Pacific railroad
and it's projectors continuous joke.
Alfred wondered. He could not then,
as afterwards, realize that, to every
thorough going San Franciscan, Cali
fornia was but a storehouse, kitchen
garden, at most a tribute bringing
suburb of the gay city by the Golden
Gate. Nothing outside mattered. To
them the sand -duned cusp, struggled
over with it's fimsy, gibbous houses,
was as truly the whole world as ever
was the Eternal City to old Roman.
So secrets fell unearned into Al
fred's keeping. Red lips told him tales
between their smiles, every word
prize Business men, talking elibly
of inland transportation, dismissed the
transmontane railroad with yaWn,
yet went wild over the delusion of San
Joaquin valley petroleum. And Alfred
drove, sang, dined danced merrily to
his goal and babe goodbye to his
entertainers the very day he read
Phineas Cadwalladers name on the
Lick house register.
He reported in Sacramento, received
instructions, and incidentally com
mendation. Hastily he made the
changes called for by the step from
jasminehung San Francisco to ice
bound Carson City. And the second
day after leaving salt water he swung
into Sally BIS to find Stella away,
across the gulch, watching in house
of mourning.
All the way from Sacramento, while
the little steam bantam bumped over
the unsettled roadbed, Alfred had re-
hearsed his expected interview with
Stella. He did not admit his love; he
had no right to it. Friendly interest,
the duty of courtesy to one SO forlorn
and so placed in his care-those were
all His own eyes must prove the
truth of her letters, which told scantly
of her good health and fine situation.
He would sit by her side the short
hour before the stage left, hear in de-
tail her life in California.
Sally B. saw his disappointment,
and came quickly to his rescue Go
with my Viola here; she'll show ye.
You can make the house across the
gulch in Is minutes. Mr. Sacket was
killed by a blast the other day, you
know. an Stella's ben with the wilder
sence. But Win stay with her, an
you'n Stella can talk heap in half
hour. Walk this way, an slow; an
yell still have quarter hour fur yer
dinner fore the stage leaves Billy
Dodge pulls out today; he'll give We
an extra minute or two
Alfred flushed at Sally BIS loud
plans. He had found instant favor in
her eyes. His obvious superiority
to the men that swarmed, un-
welcome. about Stella at every op-
portunity, decided Sally B. to aid him
with Stella. The sooner they settled