CHAPTER XI
IN THE SUNSHINE OF YOUTH
There was a great talk about hard times. Some discouraged peoplereturned east, convinced there was just as good a chance forprosperity there. But the city went on laying out streets, pavingsome, erecting large business buildings, discarding old oil lamps, fornow gas was introduced. And in April, a branch Mint was opened by theGovernment on Commercial Street, which had been a great necessity,though there had been allowed a private coining establishment. Thepayment of many transactions had been in gold dust or nuggets. Therewas also an earnest endeavor to awake interest in a through railroadservice. The overland route was hazardous, painful, and expensive,that round the Horn tedious, and across the isthmus difficult.
There were also several filibustering expeditions that came to grief,and some quite noted citizens were tried and punished. Riots, too,were of frequent occurrence, but, on the whole, a spirit ofimprovement was visible everywhere. The long-neglected Plaza wasregraded, a fence placed around it, a flagstaff raised, and it becamequite a favorite resort, the drive around it being thronged bycarriages on pleasant afternoons.
The Vigilance Committee had done good work and rendered the city muchsafer. Manufactures were started. True, coal had to be brought fromsome distance, and there was a great need of really skilled labor.
The little party that had taken the "Hazard of new fortunes" wereprospering. Now and then Dick Folsom had been seized with a miningfever that had required all the ingenious arguments of his mother tocombat. Then, seeing an opportunity, and having good backers in theDawsons, she had opened a sort of Home Hotel that at once became agreat favorite on account of its excellent bread and rolls, and nowDick had business enough on his hands, though it did not quench hislonging for a more adventurous life.
Miss Gaines, too, had extended her borders. She had taken a place onan attractive street and opened a real business of dressmaking andmillinery, and was largely patronized, Boston being considered reallyhigher style than New York. Jacintha Vanegas had married, and MissGaines had persuaded the mother to sell her old house as the lot wasneeded for an important improvement. So Senora Vanegas came to keephouse for her, and Felicia to be her right-hand woman.
"It's worlds better than teaching school," she explained to MissHolmes. "When you once rise to a positive dictum in style, people givein to you and pay you any price. I'm not going to spend all my time onfurbelows. After a few years I shall retire and take some journeysabout the world. One of my cousins is anxious to come out and I shallsend for her. As for marrying--I certainly shall not take a man tohang on to me, as one might easily every month in the year."
The hard times had touched Jason Chadsey rather severely, but he heldup his head bravely. For he saw that San Francisco must be the brainof the outlying country. The treaty with Japan would open up newventures. There was to be a line of mail steamers from San Franciscoto Shanghai. And all up and down the coast from Puget Sound to theIsthmus vessels were plying, bringing the treasures of other lands.
The visit to Oaklands had been beautifully arranged. Mrs. Savedra hadsent a written invitation to her sister-in-law, enclosing a note toMiss Holmes. They were to come early in the morning, at least the bigcarriage would meet the boat at ten. It was across the bay, to besure, but only like a ferry.
Olive took upon herself the real significance of the visit. They were_her_ relatives, not even her stepmother's. Her aunt was quite Frenchstill and talked with a pretty accent, and was really very charming,though she did not go much into society.
"Of course, you've seen Victor--you can't help liking him, you know.Isola is only a year younger, but she's a queer, fretful sort of girl,who always has a headache if she doesn't want to do the things youchoose. Elena is a little witch, good and bad, sweet and sour all in aminute. Then some children died, and Andrea is a sweet, big, spoiledbaby."
Laverne laughed.
"If Isola was like most girls we could have lots of fun. I hatehalf-sick people, don't you? I want them to be ill enough to stay inbed, or else able to have some fun. She plays beautifully on theorgan, though, and the piano."
"Oh, I do love music," declared Laverne. "I could listen forever."
"Then you and she will get along. Victor will entertain Isabel, ofcourse. You can't have him all the time," with a touch of malice.
Laverne turned scarlet.
Up and down the bay seemed alive with vessels of every kind anddegree, and some sailboats keeping out of the way of the larger craft.
Victor had the big family carriage with its three seats.
"I'm going to sit with the driver," announced Olive.
Victor assisted the ladies in, expressing his pleasure that it was afine day and that they could all come. The two handsome horses flungup their heads and pawed the ground a little. They went somewhatsouth-easterly, passed the streets that already had quite a cityaspect, and then turned into a road bordered with magnificent treesand almost paved with great violets of all colors, and farther back awild profusion of bloom. Geraniums like small trees, brilliant inscarlet, rose, and pink. Magnificent palms, shining olive trees, andoranges that had been cultivated to perfection. Laverne drew longbreaths of the perfumed air.
All at the southern side was an immense garden. At the north it wasprotected by a great belt of woods. How different from their rockymound, but she recalled the fact that Victor had found some points toadmire.
The mansion was broad and low, the centre reaching up two stories witha sharp peak, the wings but one story. A porch ran the whole length ofit, shaded by heliotrope trained as a vine and full of purple bloom,and passion flowers in lavender, purplish red and white, with touchesof grayish purple. These climbed over lattices, leaving spaces betweenthat looked like French windows reaching to the ground. It was reallya succession of rooms. Easy chairs, lounging chairs (one on wheels forIsola when she felt indisposed for walking), small tables with booksand papers, or a work-basket, and down one end a large one withvarious dishes of fruit.
Mrs. Savedra welcomed them in a most cordial manner. She was hardlymedium height; indeed, she looked short beside these taller women. Herblack hair was a bed of ripples with curling ends, her eyes a softdusky black, and her complexion a rather pale sort of olive with adash of color in the cheeks.
Victor could hardly be said to resemble her, and yet he had taken someof her best points.
Isola stood beside her mother, almost as tall, but slim as a willowwand, and sallow as to complexion, with a deep shade under the eyes.Her hair was a duller tint, and her eyes a gleam that in some lightswould have a suggestion of yellow.
There were also two young gentlemen--one a visitor who had come withhis father on some business, the other a schoolmate of Victor's thatthe Personette girls had met before, Vance Lensam. Louis Alvarado wasolder than either of them, a handsome young fellow, with blue blackhair and eyes that seemed to look through one.
Victor had asked his friend Vance, so that, he said laughingly, hiscousins would not pull him to pieces.
"And this is the little girl we have heard about, who took the long,long journey around Cape Horn," Mrs. Savedra said, holding her smallfair hand and glancing smilingly into the deep blue eyes. "I took onejourney from New Orleans with my husband, and it seemed endless,though we had many pleasures by the way and some dangers. Once we lostour way and had to sleep in the woods, and we heard the wolves howl."
"There were no wolves on shipboard and we couldn't get lost," returnedthe child, in a soft tone.
"Oh, you might have been blown out of your course by a storm,"commented Victor.
"I think we were once or twice. But they all said it was anexceptional passage," returned his aunt.
Then they were seated on the porch while the maids took their hats andmantles, for one never quite knew when a strong west wind would comeup. And for a few moments there was a confusion of pleasant voices.The servant brought a great stone pitcher of delightful fruit beverageand filled the glasses. It was ice-cold and most grateful.
There weresome queer crispy cakes with scalloped edges that were very nice,Laverne thought.
The elders began to talk on the subjects of the day. There was neverany lack of news in the various papers, though there were fewtelegraph connections and no cables to flash around the world. VanceLensam came round to Isabel's side. He had been to the theatre a fewnights before and seen a remarkable young actress, Miss Heron, in theplay of "Fazio," and it was superb.
"I want so to go to the theatre," declared Isabel. "Father will notallow us, he declares it is no place for young people."
"Anybody might see this play, I think. And the audiences have grownmore respectful and respectable. We are getting to be quite a staidand orderly city," and he laughed with a little irony.
"And just as soon as a girl is married she can go anywhere," Isabeldeclared.
"With her husband--yes."
"And I want to go to a real ball. I have outgrown children's parties.Oh, there are to be some splendid picnics when school closes. I hopewe can go. Mother has so many engagements all the time. We ought tohave a summer governess."
"That would be a good idea. One as manageable as the Senorita's," andhe half nodded in Isola's direction.
"But she never wants to do anything worth while. Oh, dear, it isn't anice thing never to be real well."
"No, I wouldn't like it."
"Do you know that Mr. Alvarado?"
"I only met him yesterday. They are Spanish Cubans, I believe."
"Come down and talk to him. Oh, I do get on so slowly with French andSpanish. Mother wishes she could send me to a good Eastern school,where they make girls study."
"You wouldn't like it?" enquiringly.
"Do they lock them up and keep them on bread and water, or beat them?I'd like to see the teacher who could make me study."
"Are you so very obstreperous?" he laughed.
"I don't see the use of so much of it. You marry, and that's the endof learning. But I wish I was a good French scholar. I was quiteashamed the other night. Father had a French visitor come in aboutsomething, and he didn't understand English very well, so he asked meto translate, and I couldn't."
"Moral!" Vance said sententiously.
They had been moving slowly down to the young man, who now gave them anod of welcome, and began to air his rather lame English.
The nurse brought out the baby, a charming child of four, andLaverne's face lighted up with joy.
"You are fond of babies," said the mother, in a glad tone.
"Oh, yes, and there are so few of them, except the dirty streetchildren."
"Where is Lena?" asked Olive.
"One can never tell for five minutes where she is," said the mother.
"I'm going to hunt her up; she's such fun."
But Olive went no further than the group shaded by the passion vine,and the four were in the midst of something amusing, to judge by theirmerry laughs.
"Why, I didn't know Alvarado could be so gay," declared Victor. "Hedoesn't talk very well, and last night I hardly knew how to entertainhim. His father is to send him North to one of the cities in theautumn. We need some of this work here, high schools and colleges."
"That will come. Think how young you are. I am amazed at theprogress," declared Mrs. Personette.
"I suppose San Francisco is an old, young city. The Americanos havereally overpowered us. But, Aunt Grace, did you ever stand in thestreet a few moments and listen to the jargon? You can imagine whatthe Tower of Babel must have been. I think we have gathered all thenations of the earth within our borders. And the Chinese are theoddest. Oh, mother, I am glad you were not a Chinese woman."
"I think your father would not have been allowed to marry me," shesaid smilingly. "And I did not know a word of English then. I had beenin a convent. We thought it a barbarous tongue."
"It's going to conquer the world some day."
"Will everybody speak English, do you think?" and Laverne glanced up.The baby's arms were tight about her neck.
"Oh, baby!" cried the mother. "Nurse, you had better take him."
It was funny to hear the baby scold in French.
"Victor, you might take the little girl--Laverne, is it not? and showher the garden. I heard about your pets. You must have a charm."
Laverne smiled. They walked down the porch and Victor paused a momentto invite his friends to join them. They did not at once, but the twokept on. They turned down a wide alley, under some orange trees. Thelate blossoms had fruited, the early ones been killed by the unusualfrost of the winter.
"Oh, it is so beautiful, so very beautiful!" she exclaimed, withalmost the poignancy of joy. "I never supposed there was all thisbeauty such a little distance from us. Why didn't they come over hereand build the city?"
"You will not ask that twenty years from this time. San Franciscowill be one of the great cities of the world, the gateway of theWestern coast, the link of everything splendid! Think of the GoldenGate, of the magnificent bay, where no enemy could touch a ship. Andthat rocky coast, a defence in itself."
"Twenty years," she repeated musingly. "Why, I shall be quite an oldwoman," and a look almost of terror flashed up in her face.
He laughed at her dismay. "I am not quite seventeen. Then I shall bethirty-seven, and I hope to have a home and be just as happy as myfather is, and shall endeavor to be just as prosperous. But I wouldn'twant you to call me an old man."
She flushed under his eager eyes.
"Everything grows finer here than in San Francisco. Even at theEstenegas it was not luxuriant like this."
"For fifteen years father has had it cultivated. There are twogardeners working all the time. He is so fond of beautifulthings--trees, and flowers, and birds. No one is allowed to molestthem. Oh, listen!"
They both stood still. She clasped her hands, and her eyes were lucentwith mistiness.
"Oh," she cried, "it is like this:
"'How they seemed to fill the sea and air, With their sweet jargoning.'"
Certainly they were a gay and happy lot, singing for the very love ofmelody, it seemed. Then they passed masses of flowers, beautifulgroups of trees again, wound around unexpected corners.
"I wonder you found anything to praise up there on the hill," she saidin a low, rather disheartened tone.
"Oh, I came to see you, and the gull, and Snippy, and to have the niceride. And I did have a fine day. Now, you are not going to envy yourneighbor's garden!"
"Why, no; I wouldn't want to take it away if I could, for there are somany of you to enjoy it, you see, and only so few of us."
"And your uncle will be rich enough to give you everything you wantsome day."
She had never thought about his being that.
A sudden shower of olives dropped down upon them like a great peltingrain.
"Oh, Elena, where are you, you little witch! Ah, I see you. Shall Ishake you down out of the tree?"
A gay, rippling laugh mocked him.
"Lena, come down. The little girl is here who has the squirrel namedSnippy, and the gull."
"I thought it was Olive. I was going to crown her with her namesakes.Why did they give her that name, like hard, bitter fruit?"
"Why are girls named Rose and Lily?"
"Oh, they are pretty names, and sweet."
"Well, you see, no one consulted me about it. Please, come down."
She laughed again, like the shivering of glass that made a hundredechoes. Then there was a rustling among the branches, and a lithefigure stood before them, looking as if she might fly the next moment.
"Lena! Lena!" and Victor caught her by the shoulder. "What did youpromise this very morning--that you wouldn't torment Olive, butbehave discreetly."
"This isn't Olive," and she gave her elfin laugh.
"But you meant it for Olive. This is the little girl who lives over onthe rock, where we go to see the seals and the great flocks of birds.You know I told you of her."
Elena stared at the visitor. She had a curious, gypsy-like brilliance,with
her shining, laughing mischievous eyes and the glow in hercheeks. She was very dark, a good deal from living in the sun, and nota bad-looking child either. And now an odd, coquettish smile flashedover the eyes, mouth, and chin, and was fascinating in its softness.She held out her hand.
"Victor likes you so much," she said, and Victor flushed at thebetrayal of confidence he had used to persuade her into cordiality. "Ithink I shall like you, too. Let us run a race. If I beat you, youmust like me the most and do just as I say, and if you beat I will bejust like your slave all day long."
"No, Lena. You must not do any such thing."
"She is like a little snail then! She is afraid!" and the black eyesflashed mirth as well as insolence.
"I am not afraid." Laverne stood up very straight, a bright red roseblooming on each cheek. "Where to?" she asked briefly.
"Down to the fig trees."
"Will you count three?" Laverne asked of Victor.
He smiled and frowned.
"Count!" she insisted authoritatively.
They started like a flash, the shadows dancing on the path. Elenagained. Victor grew angry, and came after them; then Laverne gave asudden swift swirl and turned on her antagonist.
Lena stopped with a laugh. She was not angry.
"How you can run!" she exclaimed. "I wish you lived here. We wouldhave races twenty times a day. And--can you climb trees?"
"Oh, yes."
"And swim?"
"No," admitted Laverne frankly.
"Then you can't do everything that I can."
"And she can do something you cannot. She can read French and Spanish,while you really can't read English; she can do sums and writeletters, and--and sew," he was guessing at accomplishments now.
"There are the women to sew."
"But you might be wrecked on an island where there were no women, andtear your frocks, as you generally do."
Laverne smiled. How find a needle and thread on a desolate island?Lena did not see the point, and looked rather nonplussed.
"Oh, well, I shouldn't care then," she retorted.
"Come, let us go to the aviary. Miss Laverne will like to see thebirds."
There was a large space netted in from tree to tree in which therewere many rare birds of most exquisite plumage, and quantities of tinySouth American love birds, gossiping with each other in low, melodioustones.
"Oh, how wonderful!" Laverne exclaimed.
"It's a great fancy of father's. Sea captains bring him birds from allcountries. After a while, when they get really acclimated and canprotect themselves, he lets them out to settle in the woods about. Doyou see those two with the beautiful long tails? They came from theisland of Java. Do you know where that is?"
"Oh, it is one of the Sunda Islands down by the Indian Ocean. UncleJason has been to Borneo and Sumatra. And coffee comes from Java."
"How do you know? Have you been there?" questioned Elena.
"Father knows, and he has not been there," returned Victor. "He couldtell you a good many things if you did not like to learn them out ofbooks."
Laverne walked round the inclosure in a trance of delight. And thoughthe voices now and then made discord, on the whole it was afascinating orchestra.
"Couldn't you tame some of them?"
"It would take a long time, I think. Those bright Brazilian birds arevery wild. Every one cannot charm birds, and father is a pretty busyman."
Elena soon tired of the birds, and inquired if Laverne had a pony.Then they might ride after luncheon.
"And it must be nearly that now. Come, let us go up to the house."
Elena chattered like a magpie, and danced about, now and then hoppingon one foot, and running to and fro.
"You will think we are a rather queer lot," Victor said, half inapology.
"Oh, _you_ are not queer. I like you very much." She raised her clear,innocent eyes, and it seemed a very sweet compliment to him.
"There isn't much training. Mamacita could not govern a cat, though,for that matter, I don't believe cats are easily governed. Cats arequeer things. But school straightens up one, I suppose. Elena will goto a convent to be trained presently. Isola cannot, so she has agoverness to teach her music and a few things. You must hear her playon the organ. All she cares about is music."
"Is she very ill?"
"Oh, not very, I think. But she won't ride, which the doctor thinkswould be good for her, and she goes about in that wheeling chair whenshe ought to walk, and lies in the hammock. Mamacita would like her tobe gay and bright and entertaining to the young men, as Isabel is,because all girls are expected to marry. Mamacita was only fifteenwhen papa met her at a ball at New Orleans. That must be a very gayplace, without the crime and rough life that San Francisco has. I dohope sometime we will be civilized, and not have to take in theoff-scourings of all lands. I want it to be a splendid city, like Romeon its seven hills. And there is the grand sea outlook that Rome didnot have, though she made herself mistress of the seas."
The little girl watched him with such intelligent eyes that it was agreat satisfaction to talk to her. She was different from any one hehad known. For those of the Southern blood were coquettes from theirvery cradle, and wanted to talk of pleasure only. Of course, she wasbeing brought up by a great traveller, even if he had never risenhigher than mate of a trading vessel. And then the eastern women weresomehow different.
Elena ran on, and announced with a shout "that they were coming." Theporch was set out with little tables. Mrs. Personette was the matronof the one that had her daughters and the two young men. Mrs. Savedratook charge of Elena and Isola, and left Miss Holmes to Laverne andVictor.
There were flowers and fruits, dainty summer viands, and much gaychatting, since they were near enough to interchange with each other.Laverne was very enthusiastic about the aviary.
"Oh, you must go out and see it," she said eagerly.
Victor was thinking of the great difference between Miss Holmes andMam'selle Claire. Of course, she could talk about musicians, sheseemed to have them at her tongue's end, and some French writers. Hewas not of an age to appreciate them; young, energetic souls werequoting Carlyle, even Emerson had crept out here on the Western coast.In a way there was a good deal of politics talked, and a rather bitterfeeling against the East for turning so much of the cold shoulder tothem. Even the suggestion of war with England over the northernboundary did not seem very stirring to these people. It was their ownadvancement, the appreciation of all they held in their hands, thewonderful possibilities of the Oriental trade. And though it seemedquite necessary to study French, when there were so many Frenchcitizens, the young fellow considered the literature rathereffeminate. But Miss Holmes was conversant with the march of theCarthaginian general over the Alps, and later, that of Napoleon, andthe newer scheme that had set their wisdom at naught, and that therailroad was a necessity if the Union was not to part in the middle.He liked Miss Holmes' admiration of California. Mam'selle Clairethought it rude and rough.
There was lounging in the hammocks afterward, the sun was too hot todrive about. Isola went in the room presently, and played some soft,low chords on the organ. Laverne crept in, enchanted. She liked thevoluntaries in church when they had no grand crushes in them. Victorwas talking with Miss Holmes, so she slipped away, for Elena had foundthe quiet irksome, and there were always dogs to play with. The dogsshe thought better company than most people.
Laverne had never been near an organ. This was not a very large one,but sweet-toned for parlor use. She crept nearer and nearer, andalmost held her breath, while the tears came to her eyes. It seemedthe sad story of some one, the story the ocean waves told at times, orthe wind in the trees, when twilight was falling, and now it wasdarkness, and you could almost hear the stars pricking through theblue. Then one faint call of a bird, and a far-off answer, and lower,lower, until the sound wandered away and was lost.
"Oh," she breathed, "oh!"
"You like it?"
Laverne drew a long breath. "Oh, that isn't
the word," she said. "Wemay like a good many things, but they do not all go to your heart."
Isola took the fair face in both hands, which were cold, but the childdid not shrink, she was still so impressed with the melody.
"Let me look at you. Oh, what beautiful eyes you have--sometimes youfind that color in the sky. But music goes to the soul, the brain,and I wish I could see yours. Did you feel as if you could swoonaway?"
"I wanted to cry," Laverne said, in a tremulous tone. "But it was notfrom sorrow nor joy; you sometimes do cry when you are full ofdelight, but--at times when I hear the right music in church, I thinkthat is what heaven will be like."
"What was that like--not heaven?"
"It was night when I am sitting out on the step, and not thinking, butjust watching the stars come out."
"Oh, you little darling. I wish you could stay here always. I wishthey, your people, would fancy Elena, and we could change. She laughs,and it goes through me like a bolt of lightning, and leaves me numb.I'd like to have some one who listens that way. Mam'selle declares theplaying is wrong because I do not follow the notes, and one day whenshe insisted, I flung myself down on the floor and cried until I wassick. And now I am let to play what I like most of the time. I hatebooks--do you like to study dry, prosy things? What does it matterwhether the world is round or square?"
"Why, it might not revolve in quite the right way, and I guess theships couldn't sail as well." She smiled at the thought of thecorners.
"Now, we will have morning."
First it was a wind rustling among the trees. The sort of metallicswish of the evergreens, the whisper of the pines, the patter of theoaks; then a bird singing somewhere, another answering, hardly awake;young ones peeping a hungry cry, then a gay, swinging, dashing chorus,with a merry lark going higher and higher, until he was out ofhearing. Sounds growing discordant, impatient, harsh.
"That's the world," she explained; "morning down on the bay; thepeople working, scolding, swearing; don't you hate all that?"
"We are not near enough to hear it."
"But if you have heard it once you can imagine it. And some musicisn't much better. Mam'selle plays things that set my teeth on edge.Do you know what your soul is?"
Laverne was startled. "Why," hesitatingly, "it is the part that goesto heaven."
"Well--heaven must be sweet and soft and fair, if it is full ofangels. And why don't we keep to the soft and lovely sides ofeverything if we are to go there. Is kneeling on a hard stone floor ina convent at all like heaven?"
"I should think not."
"Mam'selle considers it useful discipline. Why, it is being dead to beshut up in a cold, dark cell. And I think you are taken up in strong,tender arms, and wafted above the clouds, like this----"
Then she began to play again. The sound stole along softly, halting alittle, murmuring, comforting, entreating, floating on and on tosounds so sweet that the tears did overflow Laverne's eyes, and yetshe was not crying.
Victor glanced through the wide doorway.
"Why, that child has even found a way to Isola's heart," he said.
"I have been listening. Your sister is really a musical genius," MissHolmes replied.