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