recent months been
robust, and Robert found upon his shoulders more and more of the
business of the office, which acted as trustee for several large
estates. Robert now had his private carriage, but Maizie would not
permit his calling thus, in state, for her at the Mineral Cafe.

"It would not look well," she said, half whimsically, yet with a touch
of gravity, "to have a famous lawyer in his splendid coach call for a
poor little Cinderella of a cashier." And so Robert came afoot each
night to take her home. When it was fine they walked up the steep Powell
street hill, gazing back at the scintillant lights of the town or down
on the moonlit bay, with its black silhouetted islands, the spars of
great ships and the moving lights of tugboats or ferries.

If it were wet they rode up on the funny little cable cars, finding a
place, whenever possible, on the forward end, which Maizie called the
"observation platform." As they passed the Nob Hill mansions of Hopkins,
Stanford and Crocker, and the more modest adobe of the Fairs, Maizie
sometimes fancied herself the chatelaine of such a castle, giving an
almost imperceptible sigh as the car dipped over the crest of Powell
street toward the meaner levels just below where she and her mother
lived. Their little yard was always bright with flowers, and from the
rear window one had a marvelous view of the water. She seldom failed to
walk into the back room and feast her eyes on that marine panorama
before she returned to listen to her mother's fretful maunderings over
vanished fortunes.

Tonight as they sat with Jeanne and Francisco in front of the crackling
fire, Maizie's hunger for a home of her own and the man she loved was so
plain that Jeanne arose impulsively and put an arm about her guest. She
said nothing, but Maizie understood. There was a lump in her throat. "I
should not think such things," she told herself. "I am selfish ...
unfilial."

Robert was talking. She smiled at him bravely and listened. "Mother's
planning to go East," she heard him say. "She's always wanted to, and as
she grows older it's almost an obsession. So father's finally decided to
go, too, and let me run the business ... I'll be an orphan soon, like
you, Francisco."

"Oh," said Maizie. "Do you mean that you'll be all alone?"

Robert smiled, "Quite.... Po Lun and Hang Far plan a trip to China ...
want to see their parents before they die. The Chinese are great for
honoring their forebears.... Somet