When Magdaléna went up to her room, she spread all her pretty gifts on
the table and asked herself if they were the secret of this novel
feeling of content with herself and her world. She studied the mirror
and fancied that she was not so plain as usual. Her eyes returned to her
presents, and she shook her head. Her mind worked slowly, but it worked
logically; nor was that imagination hers which keeps woman in a fool's
paradise long after all but the husk of her Adam has gone.
"It is Mr. Trennahan," she admitted reluctantly but ruthlessly. "He is
so clever and so agreeable--no, fascinating--that for the first time I
forgot myself, and when I remembered was not unhappy because I am not
beautiful nor clever. The world must be much nicer than I thought if
there are many people like that in it."
To love she did not give a thought, but she smiled to herself after the
light was out, and, still smiling, fell asleep.
The next morning she was downstairs by six o'clock, but found Trennahan
before her. As he approached her,--he had been sauntering up and down
the drive,--she wondered what he thought of her costume. As she was not
allowed to leave the grounds, a habit had never been thought necessary
for the heiress of the house of Yorba. She had worn for the past two
years one of her mother's discarded black skirts and a cotton blouse.
But it is doubtful if an inspired mind-reader could have made anything
of such thoughts as Trennahan wished to conceal.
"You look as fresh as the morning," he said, with a gallantry which was
mechanical, but true and delightful to a girl in her first experience of
compliments.
"Did you sleep well?" she asked. "I hope the mosquitoes did not keep you
awake. They are very bad."
"I believe they are, but I received a friendly warning from Mr. Polk and
rubbed the leather which protects my skull with vinegar. I think it was
superfluous, but at all events I slept undisturbed."
Magdaléna regarded his skin attentively, much to his amusement. "It is
thick," she said, feeling that she could not honestly reassure him, but
quite positive that he expected her to answer.
He laughed heartily. "Oh!" he said. "What a pity you must 'come out'! I
am a convert to the Old-Californian system. But here are the horses."
The improvised groom, a sulky and intensely self-conscious stable-boy,
led up the horses, and Magdaléna put her foot in Trennahan's hand.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, with a note of real admiration in his voice; and
Magdaléna nearly fell over the other side of her horse.
They cantered off sharply, the boy following a good thirty yards behind,
feeling uncommonly sheepish when he was not thinking angrily of his
neglected chores. It was not thought good form in Menlo Park to put on
the trappings of Circumstance. Mrs. Washington drove a phaeton and took
a boy in the rumble to open the gates; but the coachmen when driving the
usual char-à-banc or wagonette performed this office while their
mistresses steered the horses through the gates. No one ever thought of
wearing a jewel or a décolleté gown to a dinner or a dance. Mrs. Dillon,
the Bonanza queen, having heard much of the simplicity of the worshipful
Menlo Park folk, had paid her first calls in a blue silk wrapper, but,
conceiving that she had done the wrong thing, sheltered her perplexities
in black silk thereafter. Her daughter upon the same occasion had worn a
voluminous frock of pale blue camel's hair trimmed with flounces of
Valenciennes lace, that being the simplest frock in her wardrobe; but
she privately thought even Mrs. Washington's apotheosised lawns and
organdies very "scrubby," and could never bring herself to anything less
expensive than summer silks, made at the greatest house in Paris.
"I am going to see the Mark Smith place this afternoon," said Trennahan.
"Your mother has very kindly offered to drive me over. I suppose it has
no woods on it. These are beautiful."
"They are the only ones in the San Mateo Valley," replied Magdaléna,
experiencing the full pride of possession. "Are there such beautiful
ones in Europe?"
"Those at Fontainbleau are not unlike. But in England you stand in the
middle of a wood and admire the landscape on either side."
"Helena wrote me something like that. She said that she always put on a
veil when she went into an English wood for fear she would get
freckled."
"Who is Helena?"
"She is my great friend. She is Colonel Jack Belmont's daughter, and the
most beautiful girl in California. At least I think she is, for of
course I have not seen them all."
"Are you always as conscientious as that? Why have I not seen this
peerless creature?"
"She is in Europe. You will see her in December. Of course I do not know
if she is a 'type,' but I don't see how anybody else could be like
Helena. Mr. Rollins said last night that she was the concentrated
essence of California."
"Describe her to me." He was delighted at the prospect of drawing her
out on any subject.
Magdaléna hesitated, wondering if she should have the courage to
continue, did she begin a monologue. She recalled the sustained
animation of the girls at her dinner, and moved as if to shake her head,
then recollected her ambition to shine in conversation. To no one had
she ever found it so easy to express herself as to this man. Why not
take advantage of that fact? And that represented but the half of her
present ambition. If she could only interest him!
He watched her closely, divining some cause of her hesitation, but not
all. Her complexion was even less desirable by day than by gas, but her
hair was tumbled, her eyes were sparkling softly; and the deep green
arbours of the wood were an enchanting aid to youth.
"She has curly shining hair about the colour of mahogany, and
big--long--dark blue eyes that look as if they were not afraid of
anything, and make you afraid sometimes, and regular features, and a
whiter skin than Tiny's, with a beautiful pink colour--" She stopped
short, feeling that her attempt at description was as ineffective as the
hours wasted upon her much modelled hero.
"That sounds very charming, but still--never mind her appearance. Tell
me what you so much admire in her."
"She talks so much, and she isn't afraid of anybody. She says she
wouldn't lie because she wouldn't pay anyone that compliment. She loves
to 'cheek' and shock people. She walks all round the outside of the
house--upstairs--on a narrow ledge, and she runs to fires--at least she
ran to one--and she won't study when she doesn't feel like it.
And--and--she even snatched off papa's skull-cap once."
Trennahan threw back his head and laughed loud and long. "And you would
have me believe that all that is what moves you to admiration. Don't you
know, my dear child, that you love your friend in spite of her tomboy
eccentricities, not because of them? You wouldn't be or do one of those
things if you could."
Again Magdaléna hesitated. The implied approval was delightful; but she
would not hold it on false pretences. She answered firmly,--
"I went to the fire with her."
"You? Delightful! Tell me about it. Every detail."
She told him everything except the terrible sequel. It was lamely
presented, but he cared nothing for the episode. His sympathies were
immediate if temporary, and experience had eaten off the very cover of
the book of seals. He followed her through every mental phase she
unconsciously rehearsed; and when she brought the story to an abrupt
close, lacking the art to run it off into generalities, he inferred
something of the last development and did not press her to continue. He
pitied her grimly. But he was an intensely practical man.
"You must never think of doing that sort of thing again," he said.
"Unless a person is naturally eccentric, the attempt to be so
demoralises him, because there is nothing so demoralising as
failure--except on one's own particular lines. Did you, for instance,
jump on a horse and career barebacked through Menlo Park like a wild
Indian,--a performance which your friend would probably carry off with
any amount of dash and _chic_--you would feel a hopeless fool; whereas,"
he gave her a keen side glance, "if you felt that you possessed a
talent--for music, say--and failed forty times before achieving success,
you would feel that your failures partook of the dignity of their cause,
and of your own character."
She turned to him with quickening pulse. "Do you think," she faltered,
hunting for phrases that would not commit her, "that if a person loved
an art very much, even if he could not be sure that he had genius, that
he would be right to go on and on, no matter how often he became
discouraged?"
Her eyes were staring at her horse's neck; she did not see him smile. He
had felt quite sure that she sought relief for the silences of her life
in literary composition. When an unattractive woman has not talent she
finds a double revenge in the torture of words, he thought. What shall I
say to her? That she is whittling thorns for her own soul? Bah! Did I
not find enjoyment once in the very imaginings of all that has scourged
me since? Would I have thanked anyone for opening my eyes? And the
positive is the one thing that grips the memory. It is as well to have
what high lights one can.
She had raised her head and was looking at him expectantly.
"Certainly," he said. "He should go on, by all means. Love of an art
presupposes a certain degree of talent."--May Heaven forgive me for that
lie, he thought.
She detected his lack of spontaneity, but attributed it to the fact that
he had not guessed her personal interest in the question. "Have you met
many literary people?" she asked. "But of course you must. Did you like
them very much?"
"I have inquired carefully, and ascertained that there are none in
Menlo. If there were, I should not think twice about the Mark Smith
place."
Magdaléna felt herself burning to her hair. She glanced at him quickly,
but he averted his eyes and called her attention to a magnificent oak
whose limbs trailed on the ground. Should I tell him? she thought, every
nerve quaking. _Should_ I? Then she set her lips in scorn. He spoke of
"literary" people, she continued. It will be many a day before I am
that. Meanwhile, as Helena would say, what he doesn't know won't hurt
him.
He had no intention of letting her make any such confidences. "Tell me,"
he said. "I have heard something of the old Spanish families of
California. You, of course, belong to them. That is what gives you your
delightful individuality. I should like to hear something of that old
life. Of course it interests you?"
"Oh, I love it,--at least, I loved it once. My aunt, my father's sister,
used to talk constantly of that time, but I have no one to talk to of it
now; she has lived in Santa Barbara for the last three years. She told
me many stories of that time. It must have been wonderful."
He drew one leg across the horse's neck and brought him to a stand. They
had entered the backwoods and were walking their horses. The groom was
nowhere to be seen. He was, in fact, awaiting them at the edge of the
woods, his beast tethered, himself prone, the ring-master of a tarantula
fight.
"Tell me those stories," commanded Trennahan. He knew they would bore
him, but the girl was very interesting.
Magdaléna began the story of Ysabel Herrara. At first she stumbled, and
was obliged to begin no less than three times, but when fairly started
she told it very well. Many of her aunt's vivid picturesque phrases
sprang from their dusty shelves; her own early enthusiasm revived. When
she had finished she passed on to the pathetic little histories of Éléna
Duncan and Benicia Ortega. She had told over those stories many times to
herself; to-day they were little more than the recital of a well-studied
lesson. The intense earnestness of Trennahan's gaze magnetised her out
of self-consciousness. When she was concluding the third, his horse
shied suddenly at a snake, and while he quieted it she tumbled back to
the present. She sat with parted lips and thumping heart. Had she talked
as well as that? She, Magdaléna Yorba, the dull, the silent, the
terrified? She felt a glad pride in herself, and a profound gratitude to
the wizard who had worked the spell.
"I have never been more interested," he said in a moment. "How
delightfully you talk! What a pity you don't write!"
Magdaléna's heart shook her very throat, but she managed to answer, "And
then you wouldn't buy the Mark Smith place?"
"Well, no, perhaps I wouldn't," he answered hurriedly, lest she might be
moved to confidence. He had a lively vision of Magdaléna reading her
manuscripts to him, or sending them to him for criticism. "But you must
tell me a story every time we--I am so fortunate as to have you all to
myself like this. I suppose we should be going back now."
Magdaléna took out her watch. The little air of pride in her new
possession amused Trennahan, although he saw the pathos of it.
"Yes," she said; "it is nearly eight. We must go. Papa does not like us
to be late for breakfast."
As they reached the edge of the woods, Magdaléna gave an exclamation of
disgust; but Trennahan leaned forward with much interest. The two
tarantulas, after tearing each other's fur and legs off, were locked in
the death embrace, leaping and rolling.
"Get on your horse at once," said Magdaléna, sternly. "You are a cruel
boy."
"But that is very interesting," said Trennahan; "I never saw it before."
"They are always doing it here. They pour water--" She turned to the
boy, who was mounted, and close behind them, now that they were likely
to come within the range of the old don's vision at any moment. "Dick,"
she said sternly, "how did you get those tarantulas up? Have you a
whiskey flask about you?"
She spoke with all her father's harsh pride when addressing an inferior:
Don Roberto regarded servants, in spite of the heavy wage they
commanded, as he had the Indians of his early manhood. Trennahan watched
her closely, remarking upon the variety a man might find in a woman if
he chose to look for it.
The boy assured Magdaléna that the tarantulas had been above ground. She
shrugged her shoulders and turned her back expressively upon him.
"You see those little round holes covered with white film?" she said to
Trennahan. "They lead down to the tarantulas' houses,--real little
houses, with doors on hinges. People pour water down, and the old
tarantula comes up--back first, dragging his legs after him--to see what
is the matter. Then they set two of them at each other with sticks, and
they--the tarantulas--never stop fighting until they have torn each
other to death: they have two curved sharp teeth."
Good sport for variety's sake, thought Trennahan. I see myself engaged
on warm afternoons.