efeat; and heard much of that intimate political talk for
which she had longed, although her mind wandered occasionally to that
romantic past of caballero and dona not yet a century old, very
difficult to conjure in this swarming heterogeneous valley.

After luncheon Mrs. Hofer had invited Miss Montgomery into the
automobile, and taken her and Isabel for a long ride, chattering of
everything under the sun, but with breathing spells that enabled Isabel
to exchange a few remarks with her old friend; and between remorse for
her own neglect and pity for that desolated life, she was almost
effusive, and begged Miss Montgomery to visit her in the valley where
Anne's father too had owned a ranch in palmier days. She offered to
furnish a room immediately, and Miss Montgomery smilingly promised to
obtain surcease from dinner-parties, where her portion was to enter by
the back door--in nine cases out of ten with the ancestral silver--and
take the rest she needed. She made a good living, she assured Isabel,
but was educating a young relative for the navy, and lived in a flat
that was largely kitchen. All her fragile wild-rose beauty was gone long
since, but she still remembered how to put on her clothes, and her
position was unaffected in that devil-may-care city; she went into
society when she chose.

Mrs. Hofer, on their return from the environs, left them for a few
moments in front of a house on Van Ness Avenue where a friend lay ill,
and Isabel made an enthusiastic allusion to the gay out-door appearance
of the city. The broad avenue was crowded with men, women, and children,
promenading in the sunshine. Every street-car was filled with people on
their way to or from the Park, Presidio, or Cliff House. They had passed
hundreds of automobiles and fine turnouts of every description, and out
at the three great resorts thousands of pleasure-seekers.

Miss Montgomery set her well-cut mouth in a pale line. "I get somewhat
weary of all this pagan delight in mere externals," she remarked. "It is
all so superficial and deceptive, although sincere enough in its
ebullitions. I can tell you, my dear idealist--you have not changed a
particle, by the way--that there is another side you have never seen. I
doubt if you ever would see it, even if you came to live in the town."
The automobile stood on a corner. Miss Montgomery indicated the rise and
fall of the hill-side, east and west of the avenue. "Look at all those
shabby-genteel rows of