I am afraid that is the solution. I
like to imagine myself doing things, but I don't like actually doing
them. I found that out over and over again in Europe. I can't tell you
how I have longed for a girl's good time here in San Francisco--denied
all these years, and my birthright. I was bored everywhere. I cannot
make talk; I can only talk spontaneously when I am interested. I
couldn't even enjoy the dancing--for the prospect of entertaining those
brats between times. And they were all afraid of me. I never could be a
belle like either the old ones or the new ones; the fault lies wholly in
myself, not in circumstances or materials. _I don't really want it._ No
girl can be a social success unless she cares tremendously for it.
Merely pretty girls are often popular, simply because popularity is the
breath of life to them. I wouldn't try it again for anything on earth. I
long to be at home watching the marsh, and not a soul to talk to. That
was all I was made for. A dreamer! I am terribly disappointed."

"But Society is a mere phase. So is Stone's Bohemia. The town is full of
clever people. You can select and form your own set--when you are
ready."

"I am afraid I don't care about it. I dislike the actual effort. So long
as Mr. Hofer and those men are talking I am interested, but even so I
have enjoyed--far more--thinking about and planning to know them. I am
nothing but a dreamer."

"And you have just discovered that?" asked Gwynne, curiously. "I may not
have made an exhaustive study of woman, but up to a certain point I know
you; and I have not waited for Father O'Toole to enlighten me. I could
have told you that you would hate all this sort of thing. You had a mere
taste of it in English country-houses, where entertaining has reached
such a point of perfection that a man never feels so much at home as
when in some one's else house. If you had waited for a London season you
would have been as quickly disillusioned. You have the most impossible
ideals--"

"I can realize them when I am alone," said Isabel, defiantly. "I shall
be as happy as ever on the ranch, the day after to-morrow."

"That sort of happiness will do very well for a while--living in your
imagination and all that. But what is it going to lead to?"

"Lead to? It is enough in itself."

"You can't live on moonshine for ever. I told you before that I
understood your particular form of idealism; but although I believe that
man will certainly be happier