Her life from eleven to eighteen was very monotonous and very happy.
Mrs. Montgomery petted and indulged her, the boys were her slaves, and
assured her, every time they came home from school, and later from
their whirl at College, that she was growing up the prettiest girl in
San Francisco. After Tiny’s return from Paris, which was shortly after
Lee entered her thirteenth year, the child caught little glimpses
of the world from her secluded tower. Tiny entered society at once,
and was as much of a belle as any girl so constitutionally bored and
indifferent could be. But her beauty made an immediate impression;
she was much entertained, and during her first winter the young men
came in shoals to the house on Rincon Hill. She was very small and
marvellously dignified. With a long train and a high coiffure, her
fine head held well back, emphasising her fine aquiline profile, she
actually had a presence. Her hair was soft and brown; her brown eyes,
under their level brows, very sweet and thoughtful, her skin had the
pure cold whiteness of the camellia; and her admirers swore that her
feet and hands necessitated a magnifying glass. She was thin and
delicate, but she had great force of character and a sweet inflexible
will. Lee conceived for her one of those girlish adorations peculiar to
the impulsive and imaginative of her sex, and quite bitterly resented
the rival claims to belledom of the overwhelming Helena, the sinuous
tropical Ila, the clever Miss Geary, and the wealthy Miss Yorba.
When Mrs. Montgomery gave a party she was permitted to contemplate
these radiant beings in the dressing-room, and preferred Miss Yorba,
with her tragically plain face, because she was the only one who
ever condescended to notice her. Later, when she was supposed to be
in bed, she lay prone at the top of the stairs watching the dancing
and flirting. In summer, she saw even more of the mysterious life of
grown people; who appeared to live on the verandahs, and had many
picnics. When she was sixteen, men began to notice her, despite Mrs.
Montgomery’s efforts to keep her in the background and “a child as long
as possible.” But creole blood is quick and magnetic, and long before
it was time to take her place in society it was prophesied that Lee was
to succeed that famous trio of belles, Helena Belmont, Ila Brannan,
and Tiny Montgomery. Her own imaginings on the subject were very
satisfactory, but she studied hard and read so many books that Tiny
begged her to be careful lest she be thought clever.