admiring attentions of young men (clerks and collegians) in her Atlantic
home, and, of professional men (merchants and stockbrokers) in San
Francisco. It was true that they were not as continually devoted to her
and to the nice art and etiquette of pleasing as Emile,--they had other
things to think about, being in business and not being GENTLEMEN,--but
then they were greatly superior to these clowns, who took no notice of
her, and rode off without lingering or formal leave-taking when their
selfish affairs were concluded. It must be the contact of the vulgar
earth--this wretched, cracking, material, and yet ungovernable and
lawless earth--that so depraved them. She felt she would like to say
this to some one--not her father, for he wouldn't listen to her, nor to
the major, who would laughingly argue with her, but to Mrs. Randolph,
who would understand her, and perhaps say it some day in her own
sharp, sneering way to these very clowns. With those gentle sentiments
irradiating her blue eyes, and putting a pink flush upon her fair
cheeks, Rose reached the garden with the intention of rushing
sympathetically into Mrs. Randolph's arms. But it suddenly occurred
to her that she would be obliged to state how she became aware of this
misfortune, and with it came an instinctive aversion to speak of her
meeting with the inventor. She would wait until Mrs. Randolph told her.
But although that lady was engaged in a low-voiced discussion in French
with Emile and Adele, which instantly ceased at her approach, there was
no allusion made to the new calamity. "You need not telegraph to your
father," she said as Rose approached, "he has already telegraphed to you
for news; as you were out, and the messenger was waiting an answer, we
opened the dispatch, and sent one, telling him that you were all right,
and that he need not hurry here on your account. So you are satisfied,
I hope." A few hours ago this would have been true, and Rose would have
probably seen in the action of her hostess only a flattering motherly
supervision; there was, in fact, still a lingering trace of trust in her