Hunt McLane, the
Hathaways, Mrs. Don Pedro Earle, the Montgomerys, the Gearys, the Talbots,
the Belmonts, Mrs. Abbott, Tom's grandmother--"
"Never mind about them. I have them dished up occasionally by mother,
although she prefers to descant upon the immortal eighties, when she was a
leader herself and 'money wasn't everything.' We never had so much of it
anyhow. I know Grandfather Ballinger built this ramshackle old house--"
Mrs. Abbott sat forward and drew herself up. She felt as if she were
talking to a stranger, as, indeed, she was.
"This house and its traditions are sacred--"
"I know it. Yon were telling me how mother came to marry a bad fast man."
"He was not fast when she met him. It was at a ball in Washington. He was a
young congressman--he was wounded in his right arm during the first year of
the war and returned at once to California; of course he had been one of
the first to enlist. He was of a fine old family and by no means poor. Of
course in Washington he was asked to the best houses. At that time he was
very ambitious and absorbed in politics and the advancement of California.
Afterward he renounced Washington for reasons I never clearly understood;
although he told me once that California was the only place for a man
to live; and--well--I am afraid he could do more as he pleased out here
without criticism--from men, at least. The standards--for men--were very
low in those days.
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