irty-six. Her people had belonged to the type that held in
aristocratic disgust the "woman who did things," "showed herself to the
public"; moreover, as Isabel had told Gwynne, they worshipped the
flower-like artistic young creature, and would let neither the world nor
man have aught of her. She was twenty-eight when her family died, and
knowing that as a music-teacher she could not hope to compete with
finished instructors, she had looked ever her other talents and found
that the only one which promised immediate returns was a certain knack
for sauces and sweets. All her friends rushed to her assistance, and
while broiling over a hot stove, stirring jam, wished that dear Anne
were not so proud and would accept a check without any fuss. But Miss
Montgomery quickly graduated from this amateur stage. She set herself
deliberately to work to become a _chef_, and, from offerings to the
Womans' Exchange, she was soon supplying choice dishes for luncheons,
and finally entire dinners. She had a warm friend in the then Leader of
San Francisco Society, and her own cleverness and indomitable
perseverance did the rest. She sometimes reflected that if she had found
the iron in her nature sooner she might have been fiddling in Vienna;
but perhaps her highest gift had really been culinary, perhaps she
needed the enthusiastic encouragement which she found on all sides when
she embraced that appealing art; at all events she succeeded, was
educating a promising orphan relative, and laying by for her old age.
Another friend, no doubt, was the massive family silver which had
escaped the wreck. Many of the new people, Mrs. Hofer among others, did
not care for the responsibility of a luxury so tempting to thieves, and
for which they had no innate predilection; they were more than willing
to pay a reasonable sum for ancestral decorations upon state occasions,
and to dine from artistic plated ware meanwhiles. Not but that there
was a sufficiency of solid bullion to be seen on many a San Francisco
table, and there were several golden services in the city; but rich
people have all sorts of economical kinks, and Miss Montgomery found
this one profitable. Another thing, no doubt, that had contributed to
her success, was the business-like attitude she had assumed as soon as
she felt herself a professional. She accompanied her refections to the
kitchen door, although the front was always open to her, and
philosophically pocketed the customary tip.