Here we are."
The three were in Mrs. Thornton's Moorish palace half way between San Mateo
and Burlingame, a situation that symbolized the connecting bridge between
the old and new order for Mrs. Abbott. Mrs. Thornton was a lineal
descendant of the Rincon Hill of the sixties and had made her debut with
Maria Groome in the eighties. But she had married an immoderately rich man
and had a barbaric taste for splendor that formed the proper setting for
her own somewhat barbaric beauty, and imperious temper. Her dark and
splendid beauty was waning, for in the matter of giving aid to nature with
secrecy or with art she was faithful to the old tradition. But she was
always an imposing figure and as close to being the first power in San
Francisco society as that happy-go-lucky independent class would ever
tolerate.
III
Kirkpatrick liked Mrs. Hunter, regarding her as "an honest plain-spoken
dame without any frills." This estimate applied not only to her temperament
but to her costumes. He admired her severe tailored suits (although he
sensed their cost) and her smart, plain, hard, little hats.
The "frills and furbelows" of the younger "spenders" irritated the group of
nerves appropriated by his class-consciousness almost beyond endurance; but
he managed to stand it by reminding himself that irritation of all such was
a healthy sign and vastly preferable to insidious tolerance.
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