They may not know enough
to express it, but what they really feel is that you have threatened the
solidity of the order and lowered yourself as well as them. One day they
may have more sense but not in our time, I am afraid."
Nevertheless, Alexina persisted in her determination. One could succeed
alone. She would not be the first. She was by no means sure, however, what
she wanted to do, and made up her mind to take no step before the following
winter. When the Abbotts returned to Rincona in May they took James with
them. Alexina closed Ballinger House, although Mortimer slept there and a
Filipino came in every morning to make his breakfast and bed; and took a
cottage in Ross with Janet Maynard whose mother had gone south to visit old
lady Bascom, and who craved the wild peace of Marin County after too much
San Francisco and Burlingame.
Marin, with its magnificent redwood forests on the coast, fed by the fogs
of the Pacific, its ancient sunlit woods of oak and madrono and manzanita,
its mountains and rocky hills and peaceful fertile valleys, is perhaps the
most beautiful county in California, and its towns and villages are still
almost primitive in spite of the many fashionable residents whose homes are
close to or in them. The ocean pounds its western base, Mount Tamalpais is
its proudest possession, it has a haunted looking lake; and a part of it
embraces one of the many ramifications of the Bay of San Francisco, and
commands a superb view of city and island and mountain.
Pages:
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339