"It is one I'd be the better for making."
"Well, anyhow, as I am hostess I can order you to bed. It must be one o'clock. I don't doubt you will find more than one affinity if you are awakening; that is merely the mating instinct. Good-night."
Far too hospitable and high-handed to incommode a guest, she did not tell him that Paula had gone, and that Stone had sauntered out in search of a "bracer," and had not returned. Gwynne slept the sleep of the unburdened conscience, and returned to Rosewater by the first train—Isabel was remaining in town for another day—ignorant not only of having violated the proprieties, but of the fact that a former inhabitant of Rosewater lived not far from the foot of the bluff.
XXV
Two weeks later Lady Victoria was established in the house on Russian Hill. She had given no intimation of her coming until the day her train was due in Oakland, when she telegraphed, suddenly reflecting, no doubt, that she was descending into the wilderness and that precautions were wise. Gwynne barely had time to catch the train from Rosewater, and when the connecting boat arrived at the ferry building in San Francisco, he was obliged to run like a thief pursued by a policeman down to the Oakland ferry building, in order to catch the boat just starting to meet the Overland train. All this was by no means to his taste. Nor was his mother's cavalier arrival. It savored too much of royalty. And he had a masculine disapproval of being taken by surprise; moreover was far less ardent at the prospect of seeing his mother again than he would have expected. In England he had needed her; she seemed superfluous in this country, which she never would understand; and he wanted all his time for his studies—and as little reminder of England as possible. His mother, for all her individualities, was the concentrated essence of the England he knew best. Besides, she was accustomed to a great deal of attention. He had no taste for dancing attendance upon any one, and from whom else could she expect it—unless, to be sure—he recalled that his mother was a beautiful woman, always surrounded by a court of admirers. Why should Americans be impervious to the accomplished fascination and the beauty of a woman that had reigned in London for thirty years? He determined to press Isabel into service. She could try her hand on his mother's American destinies, and provide her with amusement and a host of friends.
He felt all the promptings of natural affection when he was actually face to face with his mother once more, and forgot all his doubts in his intense amusement at her naïve surprise before the comfortable immensity of the San Francisco hotels, and the crowds and automobiles in the streets.
The next day he took her up to the ranch. For a week she stalked about the country, eight hours out of the twenty-four, expressing interest in nothing, although her eyes always softened at her son's approach; and if she manifested no enthusiasm for his adopted country, at least she barely mentioned the one of his heart. At the end of a week she promptly accepted Isabel's suggestion to transfer herself and her grim disgusted maid to the house on Russian Hill. Isabel lost no time in piloting her thither. Anne Montgomery undertook to provide her with a small staff of servants, and to call daily and order the household until all wheels were on their tracks. Mrs. Hofer delightedly agreed to be the social sponsor of Lady Victoria Gwynne, and issued invitations at once for a tea and a dinner; and Gwynne, who had been half indifferent to rebuilding on the San Francisco property, immediately began holding long interviews with bankers, lawyers, architects, and contractors. The law required him to give but thirty days' notice to his tenants, well-to-do workmen; and if all went well the building might be finished in seven months. Lady Victoria evinced something like a renewed interest in life when told that by the following winter her income would be increased; and trebled as soon as the large revenue from the building had paid off the mortgage. Her son offered to place his own share at her disposal until her debts were paid, but to this she would not listen. He found her maternal affection undimmed, but other changes in her which he was far too masculine to understand, and after she was fairly settled and apparently content, he dismissed feminine idiosyncrasies from his overburdened mind. He had neglected his studies long enough, and it was time to begin his amateur practice in Judge Leslie's office, to say nothing of the bi-weekly lecture at the State University at Berkeley, which, with the journeys, consumed the day.
Isabel's feminine soul took a far more abiding interest in the subtle changes of that complicated modern evolution whose special arrangement of particles was labelled Victoria Gwynne. She bore little external traces of her illness, and when Isabel congratulated her upon so complete a recovery, she looked as blank as if memory had failed her. Isabel had encountered this truly British attitude before, and experienced none of the irritation of several of the Englishwoman's new acquaintances when insisting upon the beneficence of the San Francisco climate. But it was not long before Isabel discerned that under that sphinx-like exterior the older woman was intensely nervous, that once or twice even her splendid breeding could not control an outburst of irritability. Her eyes, too, had a curious hard opaque look, as if the old voluptuous fires had burned out; and she seemed ever on her guard. What her future plans were no man could guess. She might have settled down for life on Russian Hill, so completely did she make the new environment fit her imperious person. She even remarked casually to Isabel that "of course" she should entertain in the course of the winter, but at one of the hotels; she would never ask people to climb those stairs on a possibly rainy night. But it was evident that her entertaining would be merely on the principle of noblesse oblige; her lack of interest in the doings of a civilization so different from her own was patent, and it was doubtful if she would have even accepted the attentions showered upon her had she not feared the alternative of an unbroken ennui. Isabel felt vaguely sorry for her, and puzzled deeply, but she could do no more than provide her with entertainment and the abundant comforts and luxuries of the city; to express any deeper and more womanly sympathy to that proud nature would have been a liberty Isabel would have been the last to take. But she retained her own rooms and went down with Gwynne once a week, when they both devoted themselves to Lady Victoria's amusement. It was at least gratifying that the French restaurants and many of the unique Bohemian resorts entertained her more than society; and she found the Stones amusing, and frankly made use of Paula, who did all her shopping, receiving many a careless present.
Meanwhile Gwynne, when not reading, or practising, or attending lectures, or endeavoring to hurry forward his new enterprise in the city, took long buggy rides with Tom Colton about the country, and made acquaintance with many farmers, as well as with the guileful depths of the ambitious young politician. Colton, although for the present dependent upon only the voters of his district, by no means confined his attentions even to those of his county. The time would come when he would need a wide popularity, and with his cool far-sighted tactics he was already sowing its seeds. There was an immense and varied material to work on. Not only were his own county and the two adjoining as large as a State more modest than California, but, with the exception of the Asti vineyards, and one or two ranches like Lumalitas, were cut up into an infinite number of farms owned by Irish, Scotch, Danes, Norwegians, Swedes, Hungarians, Swiss, Germans, Italians, and a few native Americans. Asti alone, a great district devoted to the vine, and boasting the largest tank in the world, was entirely in the hands of Italians. The Swiss, for the most part, were cheese makers. The rest devoted themselves to chickens, grain, hay, wheat, and fruit. There were several orange orchards and one violet farm. Many of these foreigners were so numerous that churches had been built for their separate use, and service was held in their native tongue. All were willing to drop work for a few moments and talk politics with Colton, particularly if it was to abuse lawmakers and monopolists—above all, the railroads, whose prices were exorbitant, and whose service was inadequate. In this department of monopoly at least they had a real grievance, and Colton never let them forget it. He made no secret of the fact that the United States Senate was his goal, and reiterated that there alone could he accomplish the legislation that would free the farmer from the costly tyranny of the corporations and give the laboring man his rightful share of profit. Some were skeptical that any mortal could accomplish all he promised, but the foreigners for the most part were gullible, and they all liked the rich man's son, with his simple ways and his blatant democracy.