Society, however, had made up its mind, and as the women had no
particular desire to make that terrible journey to Alexina
Ballinger's any oftener than was necessary, it was determined (in
conclave) that Mrs. Hunt McLane should have the honor of capturing
and introducing this difficult and desirable person.

Mr. McLane, who had met him at the Club, called on him formally and
invited him to dinner. Hunt McLane was the greatest lawyer and one of
the greatest gentlemen in San Francisco. Masters was too much a man
of the world not to appreciate the compliment; moreover, he had now
been in San Francisco for two months and his social instincts were
stirring. He accepted the invitation and many others.

People dined early in those simple days and the hours he spent in
the most natural and agreeable society he had ever entered did not
interfere with his work. Sometimes he talked, at others merely
listened with a pleasant sense of relaxation to the chatter of pretty
women; with whom he was quite willing to flirt as long as there was
no hint of the heavy vail. He thought it quite possible he should
fall in love with and marry one of these vivacious pretty girls; when
his future was assured in the city of his enthusiastic adoption.

He met Madeleine at all these gatherings, but it so happened that he
never sat beside her and he had no taste for kettledrums or balls. He
thought her very lovely to look at and wondered why so young and
handsome a woman with a notoriously faithful husband should have so
sad an expression. Possibly because it rather became her style of
beauty.

He saw a good deal of Dr. Talbot at the Club however and asked them