The Yorba house on Nob Hill was the gloomiest house in San Francisco in
any circumstances; upon the return of the family to town this year it
suggested a convent of perpetual silence. Mrs. Yorba, bereft of her full
corps of servants, herself shook the curtains free of their loops and
pinned them together. "Ah Kee can play the hose on the windows from the
outside once a month," she remarked to her daughter; "but Heaven only
knows when they will be washed inside again, or how often poor Ah Kee
will have time to sweep the rooms. I shall make an attempt to keep the
reception-room in some sort of order; and as it is comparatively small
and I can dust it myself, I may succeed, but I don't suppose anyone will
ever enter the parlours again. There seems no hope of your father coming
to his senses."
Magdaléna flung her own curtains wide, determined to have light if she
had to wash the windows herself. But the rest of the house chilled and
oppressed her. Even her mother's bedroom was half-lighted, and the halls
and rooms downstairs were echoing vaults. One was almost afraid to break
the silence; even the soft-footed Chinaman walked on his toes. Magdaléna
conceived the whimsical idea that her father's house had been closed to
receive all the family skeletons of San Francisco, of which many
whispers had come to her. Sometimes she fancied that she heard their
bones rattling at night, as they crowded together, muttering their
terrible secrets. But the idea only amused her; it did not make her
morbid, although there was little but her own will to keep her spirits
on a plane where there was more light than bog. It was a very grey and
rainy winter. She was forced to spend the afternoons after four o'clock
in idleness: Don Roberto himself turned off the gas every morning before
he went down town, and on again at seven in the evening. The meals in
the dining-room, naturally the darkest room in the house, were eaten in
absolute silence. In fact, it was seldom that anyone spoke except on
Mrs. Yorba's reception day. Herself wore the air of a stoic. Don
Roberto's keen eyes searched his wife and daughter now and again for any
sign of extravagance in attire, but he rarely addressed them except on
the first of the month, when he demanded their accounts. He peremptorily
forbade them to go out after dusk, as the night air was bad for the
horses. The evenings he spent in his study with his brother-in-law. Mrs.
Yorba and Magdaléna sat in their respective rooms until nearly half-past
ten; when Don Roberto went the rounds to see that the lights were out.
Were it not for his fear of earthquakes, he would have turned off the
gas at that hour, but he permitted a tiny spark to burn in the halls all
night. Occasionally Mr. Polk came home early and went to Magdaléna's
little sitting-room, the old schoolroom, and sat with her for an hour or
two. He said little and never talked of himself. She longed to bring her
aunt back to this lonely old man, but did not know in the least how to
go about it, and the subject never was mentioned between them; he might
have been a bachelor or a widower. But as he sat staring into the fire,
Magdaléna was convinced that he was thinking of his wife. She had never
entered his house since the day of her strange discovery; delicacy kept
her away, but her feminine curiosity often tempted her to go in and see
if the fires were burning, the flowers and magazines on the table.
Sometimes at night she heard footsteps in the connecting gardens behind
the houses, and fancied they were those of her uncle, gone on what
pilgrimage she dared not imagine.
She and Helena met again early in November. They greeted each other with
all their old cordiality, but there was a barrier, and both felt it.
Still, they exchanged frequent visits, and Magdaléna was always
interested in Helena's new conquests and dazzling regalities. Helena was
enjoying herself mightily. She had all her old admirers exhausting and
coining adjectives at her feet, and a number of distinguished
foreigners, who were spending the winter in San Francisco. She could not
drive, nor yacht, nor run to fires on account of the weather, but she
unloosed her energies upon indoor society, and started a cotillion club,
and an amateur opera company. She gave a fancy dress ball, to which all
her guests were obliged to come in the costumes of Old California, and
laughed for a week at the ridiculous figure which most of them cut. She
also gave many dinners and breakfasts, kettle-drums and theatre parties,
and, altogether, managed to amuse herself and others. She never
mentioned Trennahan to Magdaléna. Nor did he write. The Pacific might
have been climbing over him, for any sign he gave.