Two of Joan's
former schoolmates belonged to this active set, but she was only permitted
to meet them at formal dinners and large parties. She had rebelled at
first, but her mother's firm hand was too much for her still undeveloped
will, and later she had concluded "there was nothing in it anyhow; just the
whole tiresome society game raised to the nth degree." Moreover, she
was socially as conventional as her mother and her good gray aunts, and
although full of the mischief of youth, and longing to "do something," no
prince having captured her fancy, enough of what Alexina called the sound
Ballinger instincts remained to make her disapprove of "fast lots," and she
had progressed from radical eighteen to critical twenty-one. She worked
off her superfluous spirits at the outdoor games which may be indulged in
California for eight months of the year, rode horseback every day, used
all her brothers' slang she could remember when in the society of such
uncritical friends as her young Aunt Alexina, and bided her time. Sooner
or later she was determined to "get out and hustle,"--"shake a leg." That
would be the only complete change from her present life, not matrimony and
running with fast sets. She wanted more money, she wanted to live alone,
and, while devoted to her family, she wanted interests they could not
furnish, "no, not in a thousand years."
II
Joan's slim boyish athletic figure darted on ahead and then approached the
rear of the house on tiptoe.
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