The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1908-02-13
CHAPTER VII.
A Peep Into Paradise.


In San Francisco after three years
Of exile Alfred found a home. Judge
Harmon made him welcome as a son;
n 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
%. A favorite, a social authority and
leader. she launched Alfred immediate
Iy and successfully among the people
he most needed to meet. Posing as a
+ Gcston 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 a
belle.
Society, fast and feverish, curious,
fascinating, opulent, was the s~pcediest
vehicle by which he could arrive at
his purpose; for society in San Fran
cisco was still too new to divorce
itself from the COLDER enterprises that
made il. His success astonished HIM
self. Men whose intentions he eg-
pected to learn through patient
acumen talked openly of their affairs
with he railroad men. Even women
made of the Central Pacific railroad
and its projectors a continuous joke.
Alfred wondered. He could not then,
as afterwards, realize that, to every
:. CAn fwannfcnnn Cali
fornia was but a s~torehouse, a 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 its 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 hin tales
between their smiles, every word a
prize. Business men, talking glibly
of inland transportation, dismissed the
transmontane railroad with a 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 Cadwallader's 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
~jasmine-hung 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 a 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@eft, 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
I, killed by a blast the other day, you
know, an Stella's ben with the wilder
sence. But VIII stay with her, an
you'n Stella can talk a heap in a half
hour. Walk this way, an slow; an
yen still have a quarter-hour fur yer
dinner fore the stage leaves. Billy
Dodge pulls out to-day; 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 OPP
%portunity, decided Sally b. to aid him
with Stella. The sooner they settled
things the better 1t would be for her.
But she had no conception Of the
complexities of Alfred's nature and
rearing. She could not have compre-
hended. had he explained it. his senti-
"a
ment for Stella, did not dream OF the
of his hush of annoyance as he
left her-an annoyance that lasted
and made him a silent companion in
the quick walk.
Viola, glancing shyly at his angry
eyes. registered against him a con-
clusion he might have needed to
reckon with had not the vision of Stel-
la in the doorway banished gloom and
evoked a smile that the child was
quite old enough to read and glory in.
Breathless, Viola explained her COM
ing with such bald candor that Stella
went forth dumb with embarrassment.
She had lived hard the past few
weeks; Alfred realized it at once. But
now she was tongue-tied. The on
straint born OF separation was upon
her. Intuition read to her q little Of
the record of Alfred's experiences; OF
- MS difforont md cngrossing rnroa