Her face blanched; with teeth shut hard together, she pressed her face against his sleeve until she could control her voice, and finally answered: “No, I was never given to moping, my son. But to be irrelevant, I promised Uncle Bob that we would go to Valencia next week and stay with him through the summer.”
“That will be jolly; I think I would enjoy one good old spree of that sort before—”
“Let’s go out and find Uncle Bob,” said his mother quickly.
[CHAPTER II.]
“And both were young and one was beautiful.”
Valencia was a western town, with about forty thousand inhabitants who believed in and were immeasurably proud of the place. There were no factories, and there was no great value in real estate, since the wild boom of the early eighties, which made and broke so many western towns; but it was quite a railroad center, one of the principal western roads having headquarters there. Amusement there was none, save band concerts twice a week in summer, and an occasional show in the opera house in winter.
The town had perhaps more than a fair allotment of that class of people who find fault with everything, from the price of ice to the sparsity of amusements. It was said, also, to be no more free from public officials with itching palms, than other cities of its size.
Saloons were supposed to be unknown in Valencia, in accordance with the laws of the State, and it did truly present a clean, moral aspect to the casual observer.
Valencia was essentially a “home” town, with its wide streets, its many trees, comfortable homes and green lawns, and it was much beloved by its inhabitants, who, if they moved away, inevitably moved back again, with untiring loyalty.
Robert Spencer had been borne into the town on the tide of prosperity that had carried so many into it in 1882, and he was one of the barnacles who had remained, firmly fastened, when the tide receded, taking with it a few of the industries that had sprung up like mushrooms during the boom. He had had a competence when he drifted into Valencia, which by judicious investment had increased until he was independently rich.