a circle of intimate
and aristocratic friends with whom they lunched and dined
informally,--the Polks, the Belmonts, the Montgomerys, the Tarltons, the
Brannans, the Gearys, and the Folsoms.

They had been married ten years when Magdalena, their only child, was
born.

III

Mrs. Yorba was so ill when her daughter came that the child struggled
miserably into existence, and, failing to cry, was put away as dead, and
forgotten for a time. It was discovered to be breathing by Mrs. Polk,
who coaxed it through several months of puny existence with all a native
Californian woman's resource. During this time it never cried, only
whimpered miserably at rare intervals. It was finally discovered to be
tongue-tied, and as soon as it was old enough an operation was
performed. After that the child's health mended, although she seemed in
no hurry to use her tongue. As she progressed in years she still spoke
but seldom, only mildly remonstrating when Helena Belmont pulled her
hair or vented her exuberant vitality upon Magdalena's inferior person.
Once only did she lose her temper,--when Helena hung up all her dolls in
a row and slit them that she might have the pleasure of seeing the
sawdust pour out,--and then she leaped upon her tormentor with a hoarse
growl of rage, and the two pommelled each other black and blue. But as a
rule she was gentle and much-enduring, and Helena was very kind and
clamoured constantly for her society. As the girls grew older they
studied together, and the friendship, born of propinquity, was
strengthened by mutual tastes and sympathy. Helena was probably the only
person who ever understood the reticent, proud, apparently cold and
impassive temperament of the girl who was an unhappy and incongruous
mixture of Spanish and New England traits; and Magdalena was Helena's
most enthusiastic admirer and attentive audience.

Magdalena had one other friend, her aunt, Mrs. Polk, for whom she was
named. That lady was enormously stout and something of an invalid, but
carried the tokens of early beauty in a skin of brilliant fairness and a
pair of magnificent dark eyes fringed with lashes so long and thick that
Magdalena, when a child, found it her greatest pleasure to count them.
Mrs. Polk knew little of her husband and liked him less. She had obeyed
her brother's orders and married him, loving a dazzling caballero--who
had since gambled away his acres--the while. But Polk ministered to the
luxury that she l