At all events it enhanced his
standing and gave him intense pleasure.
Moreover, as time passed it became evident to his sensitive ego that he
was no longer looked upon as an outsider. He was accepted as a matter
of course. He was one of them. Neither men nor women (not even Aileen)
continued to ask themselves whether they liked him or not. He was there and
to stay and that was the end of it. They had always liked his manners; he
made a charming host, and, as ever, he danced like "a god with wings on his
heels."
Quite naturally in due course some one offered to put him up at the most
exclusive and the most expensive club west of New York, a club to which
every Californian with any pretence to fashion or importance belonged as a
matter of course. Old men whose names had once been potent in the great
banks or firms of the valleys below, sat and gazed with sad and rheumy eyes
down upon the new city in which there was barely a familiar landmark to
remind them of their youth or the years of their power and their pride.
They sat there all day long, day after day; and tourists went away with the
impression that the imposing brown stone mansion on the sacred crest of Nob
Mill was a sumptuously endowed retreat for the incurably aged.
But the majority of its members were very much alive and still well-padded;
and, far from being on a pale diet, were deeply appreciative of the famous
culinary resources of the chef, and showed it.
Pages:
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231