married sisters who refused to live elsewhere. Sally had married one
of their Harvard friends and dwelt in Boston. Maria alone had wed an
indigenous Californian, an Abbott of Alta in the county of San Mateo, and
lived the year round in that old and exclusive borough. She was now so like
her mother, barring a very slight loosening of her own social girdle, that
Alexina dismissed as fantastic the notion that even a quarter of a century
earlier she may have had any of the promptings of rebellious youth.

"Not she!" thought Alexina grimly. "Oh, Lord! I wonder if my summer destiny
is Alta."




CHAPTER II



I


She was quite breathless as she reached the eucalyptus grove and paused for
a moment before slipping into the house and climbing the stairs.

The city lying in the valleys and on the hills arrested her attention, for
it was a long while since she had been awake and out of doors at five in
the morning.

It looked like the ghost of a city in that pallid dawn. The houses seemed
to have huddled together as if in fear before they sank into sleep, to