The Californians

  X

  Trennahan, who was to have arrived in time to dine with the Belmonts andYorbas, missed his train and took his dinner alone. Afterward, he sawMagdalena for a few moments in the Yorbas' private parlour, but she hadto dress, and he went off to smoke in the grounds with Don Roberto, Mr.Polk, Mr. Washington, and Colonel Belmont. They subsequently had a gameof bowls, and--excepting Colonel Belmont--several cocktails. When theysuddenly remembered that a ball was in progress to which they wereexpected, it was eleven o'clock, and Trennahan was not dressed.

  It was Helena's ball, but she had made every man promise to look afterthe wall-flowers, that she might be at liberty to enjoy herself. Heraunt, Mrs. Yorba, and Magdalena received with her; and as all the guestshad arrived by the same train, and had dressed at about the same time,the arduous duty of receiving was soon over. Helena left the stragglersto her chaperons and prepared to amuse herself. As usual, she hadrefused to engage herself for any dances, but she gave the first two toher devoted four, then announced her intention to dance no more for thepresent. The truth was that one of her minute high-heeled slipperspinched, but this she had no intention of acknowledging; if men wishedto think her an angel, so they should. She was a sensible person, fartoo practical to reduce the sum of her happiness by physical discomfort;but the slippers, which she had never tried on, matched her gown, andshe had no others with her that did. But the one rift in her luteinduced a sympathetic rift in her temper.

  The party was very gay and pretty. The rooms had been fantasticallydecorated with red berries and snowballs, pine, and cedar. The leader ofthe band was in that stage of intoxication which promised music to makethe soles of the dado tingle. All the girls had brought their prettiestfrocks, and all the matrons their diamonds. There were no tiaras in theEighties, but there were a few necklaces, stars, and ear-rings--of thevulgar variety known as "solitaires." It is true that certain of theFungi looked like crystal chandeliers upon occasion; but Helena wouldhave none of them.

  Herself had rarely been more lovely,--in floating clouds of pale pinktulle, which looked like a shower of almond blossoms. Her hair was ropedup with pearls, hinting the head-dress of Juliet, but stopping short ofeccentric effect. She wore nothing to break the lines of her throat andneck, but on her arms were quantities of odd and beautiful "bangles,"many made from her own suggestions, others picked up in different partsof the world.

  She was standing opposite the door in the middle of the room asTrennahan entered, leaning lightly upon a little table to rest hermischievous foot. Only one man was beside her at the moment, andTrennahan's view of her was uninterrupted. He knew at once who she was.His second impression was that he had seen few girls so beautiful. Histhird, that she possessed something more potent than beauty, and that hewas responding to it with a certain wild flurry of the senses, and acertain glad exultation in youth and danger which had not been hisportion for many a long year. The instinct of the hunter leaped from itstomb, shocked into the eager quivering life of its youth. Trennahan wasappalled to hear the fine web he had spun between his senses and hisspirit rent in a second, then gratified at the youthful singing in hisblood. The old joy in recklessness, in surrender to the delirium of thesenses, came back to him. He pushed them roughly aside, and looked aboutfor Magdalena. She was listening to the rapid delivery of Mr. Rollins.He thought she looked ill, and was about to go to her when ColonelBelmont took him by the arm.

  "You must meet my daughter," he said. "Oh, bother! There go half adozen."

  When Trennahan reached Helena, he was presented in the same breath withtwo other new arrivals, and her slipper was fairly biting. She did noteven hear his name. She was in a mood to make her swains unhappy; andshe liked Trennahan's face, and what she saw there. There was eageradmiration in his eyes and nostrils, and on his face the record of a manwho might possibly be her match. Of man's deeper and more personal lifeshe never thought. She had heard that men sometimes loved married women,and others whose like she had never seen; but she hated the mere fact ofvice as she did all forms of ugliness, and dismissed it from her mind.She read in Trennahan's face that he had had many flirtations, nothingmore.

  "I am not going to dance any more to-night," she announced. She placedher hand in Trennahan's arm. "Take me to the conservatory," she said.

  There was really nothing for him to do but take her. But it was threehours before either was seen again.