XXIII
On the following Monday Don Roberto had a cold and did not go to town,but sunned himself on the verandah, alternately sipping whiskey andeating quinine pills. Magdalena dutifully kept him company, and thewhiskey having made him unusually amiable, he talked more than was hiswont with the women of his family. In his way he was fond of hisdaughter, deeply as she had disappointed him; and, had she known how tomanage him, doubtless her girlish wants would have met with few rebuffs.But that would have meant another Magdalena.
"I like this Trennahan," he announced. "He prefer talk with me than withthe young mens, and he know plenty good stories, by Jimminy! He havecall on me at the bank three times, and I have lunch with him one day.Damn good lunch. He is what Jack call thoroughbred, and have the mannersvery fine. I like have him much for the neighbour. He ask myself andEeram and Washeengton to have the dinner with him on Thursday and warmthe house. He understand the good wine and the tabac, by Scott! I feelplease si he ask me plenty time, and I have him here often."
Magdalena was delighted with these unexpected sentiments. She pressedher lips together twice, then said,--
"He asked me if I could ride again with him to-morrow morning."
"I have not the objection to you ride all you want it with Mr.Trennahan, si you not go outside the place. Need not take that boy, forhe have the work; and I have trust in Mr. Trennahan."
He would, indeed, have welcomed Trennahan as a son-in-law. Magdalenamust inherit his wealth as well as the immense fortune of her uncle;neither of these worthy gentlemen had the least ambition to becaricatured in bronze and accumulate green mould as public benefactors.Nor did Don Roberto regret that he had no son, having the most profoundcontempt for the sons of rich men, as they circled within his horizon.It would be one of the terms of his will that Magdalena's first sonshould be named Yorba, and that the name should be perpetuated in thismanner until California should shake herself into the sea.
He had long since determined that Magdalena should marry no one of thesons of his moneyed friends, nor yet any of the sprouting lawyers orunfledged business youths who made up the masculine half of the youngerfashionable set. Nor would he leave his money in trust for trustees tofatten on. Ever since Magdalena's sixteenth birthday he had been on thelook-out for a son-in-law to his pattern. The New Yorker suited him. Awealthy man himself, Trennahan's motives could not be misconstrued. Hisbirth and breeding were all that could be desired, even of a Yorba. Heunderstood the value of money and its management. And he was well pastthe spendthrift age.
Don Roberto and Mr. Polk had discussed the matter between them; andthese two wily old judges of human nature had agreed that Trennahan mustbecome the guardian of their joint millions. Magdalena was her father'sonly misgiving. Would a man with an exhaustive experience of beautifulwomen be attracted into marriage by this ugly duckling? But Trennahanhad passed his youth. Perhaps, like himself, he would have come to theconclusion that it was better to have a plain wife and leave beauty toone's mistresses. He had not the slightest objection to Trennahan havinga separate establishment; in fact, he thought a man a fool who had not.
Little escaped his sharp eyes. He had noted Trennahan's interest inMagdalena, the length of the morning ride, his daughter's sparkling eyesat breakfast. Propinquity would do much; and the bait was dazzling, evento a man of fortune.
He became aware that Magdalena was speaking.
"I have no habit; and Ila says that they intend to have riding parties."
"You can get one habit. Go up to-morrow and order one."
Magdalena felt a little dazed, and wondered if everything in her lifewere changing.
"I hear wheels," she said after a moment. They were on the verandah onthe right of the house. She stood up and watched the bend of the drive."It is the Montgomery char-a-banc," she said, "and there are Mrs.Cartright and Tiny and Ila and Rose. Shall you stay?"
"I stay. Bring them here to me. Tiny and Ila beautiful girls. GreatScott! they know what they are about. Rose very pretty, too."
The char-a-banc drew up; and as its occupants did not alight, Magdalenawent down and stood beside it, shading her eyes with her hand.
"We have come to take you for a drive to the hills, 'Lena dear," saidTiny. "Do come."
"Papa has a bad cold. I cannot leave--"
"Poor dear Don Roberto!" exclaimed Mrs. Cartright. "I will get out thisminute and speak to him. I know so many remedies for a cold,--blackberrybrandy, or currant wine, or inhaling burnt linen and drinking hotwater--" But she was halfway down the verandah by this time.
"Do you remember the last time we went to the hills?" asked Ila. "Helenaand Rose shrieked with such hilarity that the horses bolted."
"I can answer for myself," said Rose. "I may say that the memory wasburnt in with a slipper."
"I never was spanked," murmured Tiny. "That is one of the many things Iam grateful for. It must be so humiliating to have been spanked."
"Who can tell what futures may lie in a slipper?" replied Rose, who hada reputation for being clever. "I am sure that my slipperings, forinstance, generated a tendency for epigram; something swift and sharp.It destroyed the tendency to bawl continuously,--the equivalent of thegreat national habit of monologue."
"Rose, you are quite too frightfully clever," said Tiny, with anassumption of languor. "You will be writing a book next."
"I will make 'Lena the heroine," retorted Rose, with a keen glance, "andcall it 'The Sphinx of Menlo Park.'"
"Fancy 'Lena being called a sphinx," said Ila, who was looking verybored. "Are you coming, 'Lena, or not? I suppose you don't want to bekept standing in the sun."
"Oh, we're all used to that," said Rose. "I have three new freckles thatI owe to Mrs. Washington and Caro Folsom. They called yesterday and keptme standing in the sun exactly three quarters of an hour before theymade up their minds to come in and stay ten minutes."
"I'd like to go--"
Mrs. Cartright returned, shaking her head.
"Don Roberto does not want to be left alone," she said. "I fortunatelythought of a most wonderful remedy for colds, and I have also beentelling him about a terrible cold General Lee had once when he wasstaying with us. He did look so funny, dear great man, with his headtied up in one of old Aunt Sally's bandannas--"
"Please excuse me for interrupting you, dear Mrs. Cartright," said Tiny,firmly; "but I think we had better get out and talk to Don Roberto, andgo to the hills another day when 'Lena can go with us. Don't you thinkthat would be best?" she murmured to the other girls. "We might help toamuse him a little."
"It will be vastly to our credit," said Rose, "for he certainly won'tamuse us."
"Has anyone ever been amused here?" asked Ila, looking at Magdalena, whowas politely listening to Mrs. Cartright's anecdote. "Fancy having thebiggest house in the smartest county in California and making no more ofit than if it were a cottage. The rest of the houses are so cut up; butfancy what dances we could have here."
"I have been thinking over a plan," said Tiny, "and that is to try tomanage Don Roberto. 'Lena can't, but I think the rest of us could, andMrs. Yorba likes to give parties."
"I am told that in early days there was an extra burst of lawlessnessafter each of her balls,--reaction," said Rose.
"I don't think that it is nice for us to be discussing people at theirvery doorstep," said Tiny. "I just thought I'd mention my plan. And ifit succeeded, and all took charge, as it were, there need be nostiffness in an informal party in the country. Shall we get out?"
"By all means, General Tom Thumb," said Rose, with some ire; "it is veryplain who is to be boss in this community, as Mrs. Washington wouldsay."
"Wait till Helena comes," whispered Ila.