XIX
At sunrise he was awakened by the booming of cannon and the ringing of bells. He sprang out of bed, thinking that the United States was firing on the Mexican flag, then remembered that it was the birthday of the young heir, and turned in again.
Two hours later, he was shaken out of his morning nap by Estenega.
“How would you like a dip before breakfast? They are all up at mass, and Brotherton and I are going down to a very good cove I know of.”
“Get out, and I’ll be with you in ten minutes.”
Santa Barbara looked like a necropolis when he emerged. Every soul in the town, with the exception of himself, Estenega, Brotherton, and the servants preparing the birthday breakfast, was on his knees in the Mission mumbling aves for young Reinaldo. The three men walked down to the bright-blue channel motionless under a bright-blue sky. The air was warm; the waves were warm; the fruit was ripening on the walls. The poppies were opening their deep yellow lips, breathing forth the languor of the land. The palms were tall and green. The spiked cactus had burst into blood-red flower.
“This is not America,” said Thorpe. “It is Italy or Spain or Greece. It is another atmosphere, physical as well as mental. One could lie on the sands all day and think of nothing.”
“California has a physical quality which the Americans and all the other races that will eventually pour into her can never change,” said Estenega. “She will never cease to protest that she was made for love and wine and to enfold with content in the mere fact of existence, to delight the eye, the soul, and the body, to inspire poetry and romance, and that the introduction of the commercial element is an indignity. I used to think differently when California and my own ambitions seemed identical; but San Francisco gave me a nightmare.”
“On the ranches it is much the same as ever,” said Captain Brotherton, “and will remain so long beyond our time. You will return with us, Mr. Thorpe? Estenega and Chonita go too.”
And Thorpe gratefully accepted.