Trennahan arrived late in the evening, and went directly to the Yorbas'
to dinner. He saw Magdaléna alone for a moment before the others came
downstairs, and his delight at meeting her again was so boyish that she
could hardly have recalled his eventful forty years had she tried. He
was one of those men, who, having a great deal of nervous energy, are
possessed briefly by the high animal spirits of youth when in unusual
mental and physical tenor,--with coincident obliteration of the bills of
time. Trennahan was in the highest spirits this evening. He was
delighted to get back to California, delighted to see Magdaléna, whom he
thought improved and almost pretty in her smart frock. Moreover, no
woman had ever seemed to him half so sincere, half so well worth the
loving, as this girl who said so little and breathed so much.
Don Roberto and Mr. Polk detained him some time after dinner, and
Magdaléna, who thought them most inconsiderate, awaited him in the
green-and-brown reception-room. She knew the ugliness of these rooms
now, and wondered, as Trennahan finally entered, if it clashed with his
sentiment. But he gave no sign. He pushed a small sofa before the fire,
drew her beside him, and demanded the history of the past four months.
He held her hand and looked at her with boyish delight. Even the lines
had left his face for the moment, the grimness his mouth. He looked
twenty-six.
"Your trip has done you more good than California did. You never looked
so well here."
"I have been funereal since the day I left. This is pure reaction. I
never felt so happy in my life. Couldn't we have a walk or ride
somewhere to-morrow early--out to the Presidio? I want to be in the open
air with you."
"I am afraid we couldn't. Nobody does such things, you know--except
Helena. Someone would be sure to see us, and it would be all over town
before night. Then we should have to announce--I'd rather not do that
until just before--I should hate being discussed."
"Well, but I must have you to myself in my own way. I wonder if your
mother would bring you down to my house for a few days. Don Roberto and
Mr. Polk could come down every evening."
"I think they would like it."
"And you?"
"Oh, I should like it. The woods must be lovely in winter."
"Who has been teaching you coquetry? Who has fallen in love with you
since I left?"
"With me? No one. No one would ever think of such a thing but you--"
"I love you with an unerring instinct."
"They are all in love with Helena. I suppose you heard of her in New
York."
"It certainly was not your fault if I did not."
"But surely you must have heard otherwise. She is a great, great belle."
"My dearest girl, you do not hear California mentioned in New York once
a month. It might be on Mars. The East remembers California's existence
about as often as Europe remembers America's. They don't know what they
miss. When am I to see your Helena?"
"A week from to-night; she gives a ball then at Del Monte. She and her
father have already gone, because each thought the other needed rest."
"Monterey,--that is the scene of your Ysabel's tragedy. We will explore
the old part of the town together."
She moved closer to him, her eyes glistening. "That has been one of my
dreams,--to be there with you--for the first time. We can guess where
they all lived--and go to the cemetery on the hill where so many are
buried--and there is the Custom House on the rocks, where the ball was
and where Ysabel jumped off--it will be heaven!"
He laughed and caught her in his arms, kissing her fondly. "You dear
little Spanish maid," he said. "You don't belong to the present at all.
No wonder you bewitched me. I am beginning to feel quite out of place in
the present, myself. It is a novel and delightful sensation."