The Sisters-In-Law | Page 8

But I'm only tolerated. I don't count."
The old lady looked at him keenly. "You are ambitious?"
He threw back his head. "Well, yes, I am, Mrs. Groome. As far as
society goes it is a matter of self-respect. I feel that I have the right to
go in the best society anywhere--that I am as good as anybody when it
comes to blood. And I'd like to get to the top in every way. I don't mean
that I would or could do the least thing dishonest to get there, as so

many men have done, but--well, I see no crime in being ambitious and
using every chance to get to the top. I'd like not only to be one of the
rich and important men of San Francisco, but to take a part in the big
civic movements."
Mrs. Groome was charmed. She was by no means an impulsive woman,
but she had suddenly realized her age, and if she must soon leave her
youngest child, who, heaven knew, needed a guardian, this young man
might be a son-in-law sent direct from heaven--via the earthquake. If he
had real ability the influential men she knew would see that he had a
proper start. But she had no intention of committing herself.
"And what do you think of what is now called San Francisco society?"
she demanded.
He was quite aware of Mrs. Groome's attitude. Who in San Francisco
was not? It was one of the standing jokes, although few of the younger
or newer set had ever heard of her until her naughty little daughter
danced upon the scene.
"Oh, it is mixed, of course. There are many houses where I do not care
to go. But, well, after all, the rich people are rather simple for all their
luxury, and as for the old families there are no more real aristocrats in
England itself."
Mrs. Groome was still more charmed. "But you were at Mrs. Hofer's
last night. I never heard of her before."
"Her husband is one of the most important of the younger men. His
father made a fortune in lumber and sent his son to Yale and all the rest
of it. He is really a gentleman--it only takes one generation out
here--and at present he's bent upon delivering the city from this
abominable ring of grafters...There is no water to put out the fires
because the City Administration pocketed the money appropriated for a
new system; the pipes leading from Spring Valley were broken by the
earthquake."
"And who was she?"

Mrs. Groome asked this question with an inimitable inflection inherited
from her mother and grandmother, both of whom had been guardians of
San Francisco society in their day. The accent was on the "who." Bob
Cheever, whose grandmother had asked or answered the same question
in dark old double parlors filled with black walnut and carved oak,
would have muttered, "Oh, hell!" but Mr. Dwight replied
sympathetically: "Something very common, I believe-south of Market
Street. But her father was very clever, rose to be a foreman of the iron
works, and finally went into business and prospered in a small way. He
sent his daughter to Europe to be educated...and even you could hardly
tell her from the real thing."
"And you go down to Burlingame, I suppose! That is a very nest of
these new people, and I am told they spend their time drinking and
gambling."
He set his large rather hard lips. "No, I have never been asked down to
Burlingame-nor down the Peninsula anywhere. You see, I am only
asked out in town because an unmarried dancing man is always
welcome if there is nothing wrong with his manners. To be asked for
intimate week-ends is another matter. But I don't fancy Burlingame is
half as bad as it is represented to be. They go in tremendously for sport,
you know, and that is healthy and takes up a good deal of time. After
all when people are very rich and have more leisure than they know
what to do with--"
"Many of the old set in Alta, San Mateo, Atherton and Menlo Park
have wealth and leisure-not vulgar fortunes, but enough-and for the
most part they live quite as they did in the old days."
His eyes lit up. "Ah, San Mateo, Alta, Atherton, Menlo Park. There you
have a real landed aristocracy. The Burlingame set must realize that
they would be nobodies for all their wealth if they could not call at all
those old communities down the Peninsula."
"Not so very many of them do. But I see you have no false values. You.
must go down with us some Sunday to Alta. I am sure you would like
my oldest daughter. She is very smart, as