of Rosewater in a
charming little double house all brown shingles and big chimneys.
Opposite was the paternal mansion on a high terrace, a modern
Renaissance structure, painted white and shaded with gigantic palms and
acacias. There was a porte-cochere but no balcony.

All the "residences" of this quarter were modern and "artistic," even
the cottages; it was only on the lower slopes, close to the nucleus of
the town, that the many old-fashioned structures were but occasionally
thrown out of tune by a pile of shingles and stone. But all had gardens,
and there were several squares whence the streets radiated with as
puzzling an irregularity as London's own, but set thick with shade trees
tropical and boreal. On the high rim of the hills enclosing the town
were many small farms, and all were white with the Leghorn that laid the
golden eggs. These looked like a light fall of snow on the sunburned
hills, and were as refreshing as the garden trees upon which the hose
played night and morning.

As Isabel left her horse at a livery-stable and walked up the wide clean
boulevard towards her friend's house, she met no one on the glaring
pavements, although here and there a buggy was hitched, and a patient
horse stood with his fore feet on the line of grass beside the
concrete, his head under a tree, and his eyes fixed expectantly upon
the door of the house. Indeed one might walk here at almost any hour of
the day and rarely meet another; all the energies were concentrated in
Main Street, although it was the town's standing grievance that it was
not the county-seat with a court-house that should make the pretensions
of St. Peter ridiculous. No small part of those energies in the business
district were devoted to humbling the rival, in the matter of commerce.
St. Peter retaliated with the accent of a fierce contempt.
"Chickenville!" "The Eggopolis!" quoth the local wits, and who shall say
that the darts did not quiver and sting, although the more flourishing
community never lowered its self-satisfied front? Even the rich banker
families were not at the trouble to put on airs. They did not possess a
handsome turnout between them, and as for dress there were few that did
more than keep themselves cool in summer and warm in winter. It was true
that Mr. Boutts possessed a runabout automobile in which he bumped his
family to San Francisco occasionally, but he was of the newer gentry and
owed his social pre-eminence to his wife and pret