The Democrat-sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1906-1935, 1908-02-20
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 child-hungry
woman, no longer young in years,
though her heart would never forget
%. A fayorite, 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
tucky 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, curiops,
fascinating, opulent, was the sDeedtest
vehicle by which he could arrive at
his purpose; for society in San Fan
cisco was still too new to divorce
itself from the golden enterprises that
made it. His success astonished him
self. Men whose intentions he eX-
pected to learn through patient
acumen talked openly of their affairs
with the railroad men. Even women
made of the Central Pacific railroad
and its projectors continuous joke.
Alfred wondered. He could not then,
as afterwards, realize that, to every
thoroGgh-going San franciscan, Cali
fornia was but storehouse, kitchen
garden. at most tribute-bringing
suburb of the gay city by the Golden
| Gate Nothing outside mattered. 10
them the sand-duned cusp, struggled
| over with it's fiimsy gibbous houses,
was as truly the whole world as ever
was the Eternal City to old Roman.
SO secrets fell unearned into Al
| freds keeping. Red lips told him tales
| between their smiles, every word q
prize. Business men, talking ghbly
| Of inland transportation dismissed the
| transmoutane railroad with a yawn,
vet went wild over the delusion OF san
Joaquin valley petroleum. And Alfred
drove, sang, dined danced merrily 10
his goal; and bade goodbye to his
entertainers the very day ne read
Phineas Cadwallader's name on the
Lick house register
He reported in Sacramento, received
instructions, and incidentally com
mandation. 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 house
OF mourning.
All the way from Sacramento while
the little steam bantam bumped ovel
the unsettled roadbed, Alfred had re
hearsed his expected interview witt
Stella. He did not admit his love; he
had no right to it, Friendly interest
the duty of courtesy to one so forlorT
and so placed in his care-those were
all. His own eyes must prove the
truth Of her letters, which told scantlN
of her good health and fine situation
He would sit by her side the shor
hour before the stage left, hear in de
tail her life in California.
Sally Il. saw his disappointment
and came quickly to his rescue "G'
win my Viola here; she'll show ye
You can make the house across thj
gulch in Is minutes Mr. Sacket wa
Killed by blast the other day, yol
know, an Stella's ben with the widde
sence. But vim stay with her, an
you'n Stella can talk heap in halt
hour. Walk this way, an slow; an
yen still have a quarter-hour fur ye
dinner fore the stage leaves. Bill,
Dodge pubs out to-day; he'll give y
an extra minute or two
Alfred flushed at Sally B.'s lou,
plans. He had found instant favor il
her eyes. 4jis obvious superiorit,
10 the men that swarmed un
welcome, about Stella at every OF
portunlty, decided Sally B, TO aid hin
With Stella The sooner they settlel
things the better it would be for hen
But she had no conception of tn
complexities of Alfred's nature an
rearing. She could not have comprC
hended mad he explained it, his sent
ment for Stella did not dream OF tn
cause Of his flush of annoyance as h
left her-an annoyance that laste
and made him u silent companion Il
the quick walk.
Viola, glaneing shyly at his angr
eyes, registered against him cor
clusion he might have needed I
reckon with had not the vision OF Ste
! la in the doorway banished gloom an
, evoked a smile that the child wa
quite old enough to read and glory in
Breathless, Viola explained her con
ing with such bald candor that stell
! went forth dumb with embarrassment
She had lived hard the past few
weeks; Alfred realized il at once, Blu
now she was tongue-tied, The cor
straint born OF separation was upo
her Intuition read 10 her a little O
the record OF Alfred's experiences, Q