During the following week all Menlo, which had moved down before Mrs.
Yorba, called on that august leader. She received every afternoon on the verandah, clad in black or grey lawn, stiff, silent, but sufficiently gracious. On the day after her arrival, as the first visitor"s carriage appeared at the bend of the avenue, its advent heralded by the furious barking of two mastiffs, a bloodhound, and an English carriage dog, Magdalena gathered up her books and prepared to retreat, but her mother turned to her peremptorily.
"I wish you to stay," she said. "You must begin now to see something of society. Otherwise you will have no ease when you come out. And try to talk. Young people must talk."
"But I can"t talk," faltered Magdalena.
"You must learn. Say anything, and in time it will be easy."
Magdalena realised that her mother was right. If she was to overcome her natural lack of facile speech, she could not begin too soon. Although she was terrified at the prospect of talking to these people who had alighted and were exchanging plat.i.tudes with her mother, she resolved anew that the time should come when she should be as ready of tongue and as graceful of speech as her position and her pride demanded.
She sat down by one of the guests and stammered out something about the violets. The young woman she addressed was of delicate and excessive beauty: her brunette face, under a hat covered with corn-coloured plumes, was almost faultless in its outline. She wore an elaborate and dainty French gown the shade of her feathers, and her small hands and feet were dressed to perfection. Magdalena had heard of the beautiful Mrs. Washington, and felt it a privilege to sun herself in such loveliness. The three elderly ladies she had brought with her--Mrs.
Cartright, Mrs. Geary, and Mrs. Brannan--were dressed with extreme simplicity.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Washington, "they are lovely,--they are, for a fact.
Mine have chilblains or something this year, and won"t bloom for a cent.
Hang the luck! I"m as cross as a bear with a sore head about it."
"Would you like me to pick some of ours for you?" asked Magdalena, wondering if she had better model her verbal accomplishments on Mrs.
Washington"s. She thought them even more picturesque than Helena"s.
"Do; that"s a jolly good fellow."
When Magdalena returned with the violets, they were received with a bewitching but absent smile; another carriage-load had arrived, and all were discussing the advent of a "Bonanza" family, whose huge fortune, made out of the Nevada mines, had recently lifted it from obscurity to social fame.
"It"s just too hateful that I"ve got to call," said Mrs. Washington, in her refined melodious voice. "Teddy says that I must, because sooner or later we"ve all got to know them,--old Dillon"s a red Indian chief in the financial world; and there"s no use kicking against money, anyhow.
But I can"t cotton to that sort of people, and I just cried last night when Teddy--the old darling! I"d do anything to please him--told me I must call."
"It"s a great pity we old families can"t keep together," said Mrs.
Brannan, a stout high-nosed dame. "There are plenty of others for them to know. Why can"t they let us alone?"
"That"s just what they won"t do," cried Mrs. Washington. "We"re what they"re after. What"s the reason they"ve come to Menlo Park? They"ll be "landed aristocracy" in less than no time. Hang the luck!"
"Shall you call, Hannah?" asked Mrs. Cartright. "Dear Jack never imposes any restrictions on me,--he"s so handsome about everything; so I shall be guided by you."
"In time," replied Mrs. Yorba, who also had had a meaning conference with her husband. "But I shall not rush. Toward the end of the summer, perhaps. It would be unwise to take them up too quickly."
"I"ve got to give them a dinner," said Mrs. Washington, with gloom. "But I"ll put it off till the last gun fires. And you"ve all got to come.
Otherwise you"ll see me on the war-path."
"Of course we shall all go, Nelly," said Mrs. Yorba. "We will always stand in together."
The conversation flowed on. Other personalities were discussed, the difficulty of getting servants to stay in the country, where there was such a dearth of "me gentleman frien"," the appearance of the various gardens, and the atrocious amount of water they consumed.
"I wish to goodness the water-works on top wouldn"t shut off for eight months in the year," exclaimed Mrs. Washington. "Whenever I want something in summer that costs a pile, Teddy groans and tells me that his water bill is four hundred dollars a month." And Mrs. Washington, whose elderly and doting husband had never refused to grant her most exorbitant whim, sighed profoundly.
Magdalena did not find the conversation very interesting, nor was she called upon to contribute to it. Nevertheless, she received every day with her mother and went with her to return the calls. At the end of the summer she loathed the small talk and its art, but felt that she was improving. Her manner was certainly easier. She had decided not to emulate Mrs. Washington"s vernacular, but she attempted to copy her ease and graciousness of manner. In time she learned to unbend a little, to acquire a certain gentle dignity in place of her natural haughty stiffness, and to utter the phrases that are necessary to keep conversation going; but her reticence never left her for a moment, her eyes looked beyond the people in whom she strove to be interested, and few noticed or cared whether or not she was present. But at the end of the summer she was full of hope; society might not interest her, but the pride which was her chief characteristic commanded that she should hold a triumphant place among her peers.
She had told neither of her parents of the books Colonel Belmont had given her, knowing that the result would be a violent scene and an interdiction. At this stage of her development she had no defined ideas of right and wrong. Upon such occasions as she had followed the dictates of her conscience, the consequences had been extremely unpleasant, and in one instance hideous. She was indolent and secretive by nature, and she slipped along comfortably and did not bother her head with problems.
XI
The Yorbas returned to town on the first of November. It was decided that Magdalena should continue her studies, but the rainy days and winter evenings gave her long hours for her books. She found, to her delight, that her brain was losing something of its inflexibility; that, by reading slowly, one perusal of an ordinary book was sufficient. Her memory was still incomplete, but it was improving. Her mother had ceased to overlook her choice of books, being satisfied that Magdalena would never care for trash.
Magdalena always found the big dark house oppressive after the months in Menlo Park, and went out as often as she could. On fine days, attended by Julie, she usually walked down to the Mercantile Library, and prowled among the dusty shelves. The old Mercantile Library in Bush Street, almost in the heart of the business portion of the city, had the most venerable air of any building in California. There was, indeed, danger of coming out covered with blue mould. And it was very dark and very gloomy. It has always been suspected that it was a favourite resort for suicides, but this, happily, has never been proved.
But Magdalena loved it, for it held many thousand volumes, and they were all at her disposal. Her membership was worth more to her than all her father"s riches. Julie, who hated the library, always carried a chair at once to the register and closed her eyes, that she might not be depressed to tears by the gloom and the walls of books, which were bound as became all that was left of the dead.
It was during one of these visits that Magdalena approached another crisis of her inner life. She was wandering about aimlessly, hardly knowing what she wanted, when her eye was caught by the t.i.tle of a book on an upper shelf: "Conflict between Religion and Science." She knew nothing about science, but she wondered in what manner religion could conflict with anything. She took the book down and read the first few lines, then the page, then the chapter, still standing. When she had finished she made as if to replace the book, then put it resolutely under her arm, called Julie, and went home.
She read during the remainder of the afternoon, and as far into the night as she dared. Before she went to bed she said her prayers more fervently than ever, and the next morning considered deeply whether or not she should return the book half read. She finally concluded to finish it. Her intellect was voracious, and she had no other companion but her religion. Moreover, if she was to aspire to a position in the world of letters, she must equip her mind with the best that had gone before. She had every faith in the power of the Catholic religion to hold its own; her hesitation had been induced, not by fear of disturbing her faith, but because she doubted, p.r.i.c.ked by the bigotry in her veins, if it was loyal to recognise the existence of the enemy.
However, she finished the book. On the following Sat.u.r.day morning she went down to the library and asked the librarian, who took some interest in her, what he would advise her to read in the way of science; she had lost all taste for anything else.
"Well, Darwin is about the best to begin on, I should say," he replied.
"He"s easy reading on account of his style. And then I should advise you to read Fiske"s "Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy" before you tackle Herbert Spencer or Huxley or Tyndall."
Magdalena took home Darwin"s "Origin of Species" and "Descent of Man."
They so fascinated her that not until their contents had become a permanent part of her mental furnishing did she realise their warfare on revealed religion. But by this time science had her in its mighty grip.
She read all that the librarian had recommended, and much more. It was some six months later that she fully realised that her faith was gone.
There came a time when her simple appeals to the Virgin stuck in her throat; when she realised that her beloved masters, if they could have seen her telling a rosary at the foot of her altar, would have thought her a fool.
There was no struggle, for the work was done, and finally. But her grief was deep and bitter. Religion had been a strong inherited instinct, and it had been three fourths of her existence for nearly eighteen years.
She felt as if the very roots of her spirit had been torn up and lay wilting and shrivelling in the cold light of her reason. She was terrified at her new position. How was she, a mere girl, to think for herself, to make her way through life, which every great writer told her was a complex and crucifying ordeal, with no guide but her own poor reason?
For the first time she felt her isolation. She had no one to go to for sympathy, no one to advise her. Of all she knew, her parents were the last she could have approached on any subject involving the surrender of her reticence.
She lost interest in her books, and brooded, her mind struggling toward will-o"-the-wisps in a fog-bank, until she could endure her solitary position no longer; she felt that she must speak to some one or her brain would fall to ashes. Her aunt was still in Santa Barbara, and showed no disposition to return. A priest was out of the question. There was no one but Colonel Belmont. Magdalena knew nothing of his private life: not a whisper had reached her secluded ears; but she doubted if religion were his strong point. But he had always been kind, and she knew him to be clever. It took her a week to make up her mind to speak to him and to decide what to say; but when her decision was finally reached, she walked through the connecting gardens one evening with firm tread and set lips.
She entered the house by a side door and went to the library, where she knew Colonel Belmont smoked his after-dinner cigar when at home. A cordial voice answered her knock. When she entered he rose and came forward with the graceful hospitality which never failed him in the moments of his liveliest possession, and with the acute interest which anything feminine and young never failed to inspire.
"Well, honey!" he exclaimed, kissing her warmly and handing her to a chair; "you might have done this before. I"m such a lonely childless old widower."
"Oh!" said Magdalena, with contrition; "I never thought you"d care to see me." She could not know that he seldom permitted himself to be alone.
"Well, now you know it, you"ll come oftener, won"t you? Have you heard from my baby lately? I had a letter a yard long this morning. She can write!"
"I had one too." She hesitated a moment, then determined to speak at once. She could not hold this nor any man"s attention in ordinary conversation, and she wanted to finish before she wearied him.
"Uncle Jack," she said, "I"ve come to see you about something in particular. I know so few people, or I wouldn"t bore you--"
"Don"t you talk about boring me, honey,--you! Why, your old Uncle Jack would do anything for you."
A light sprang into Magdalena"s eyes. Colonel Belmont forgot for the moment that she was not beautiful, and warmed to interest at once. Few people had ever withstood Jack Belmont"s magnetism, and Magdalena found it easy to speak.