The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 20, 1904, Page 2

FRANCISCO SUNDAY = g B ST S ¢t HIS, the fourth in- l Hment of the latest California novel by a famous Cali- i thoress, for the sive Western rights of which The Stunday Call paid $1000, gives, perhaps, one of the most ithetic pictures ever penned of a young girl’s disillusioning and subse- quent strugele to eseape | malicnant fate and re- adjust her ideals. You ecannot get this bhook elsewhere in any form for less than five times what it will cost vou in The Sunday Call. op. eht oc the Bobbs-Merrill Company.) T 3 i\\er now. You « be lonely again. ¥s be there to take re of you We'll always be gether think things often € g » their very ght that I was just that led into the world « d for me, or knew anted you desperate- b n a monient, my s It's not an hour g as sitting here looking into how miserable 1 was, arms! he = against’ him for s st her face away sE shoulder, as he te not this raw you're like some som growing in the sand scen anything like it, 1 smoke on s, ar white walls of s ng 1g the cypresses. T € can walk on tk ng and look € f the Arno. It's ers, and we're going to s : derstand, and said & alway Fra and he great squares ghts ing nd the Rue h gas ps strung along £ or thread. And the k at night with* the g over it, and the lamps. ater with long pe and you s hav t sent by Oh, n so glad fre he said change of k answered You K to send me. I promised U let him take ! ¢ E th a girl’s c ent the fir fitt 5 to any breathing n sl deeply and beauti- 1 x f e must disi ion he fire, 2 wly. “Well, of were married ' i 1. gave her a lighitning Ei was smiling. f course, we'll be married,” sk How could we go to Europe s ling her eyes, which he kr fixed on him in smiling in- qu a lowered volce: could.” t understand?” I the first time there was a faint r Y in her voice. Though his glance was still bent on the fire, he knew that she was no longer il- i go easily. without making e r fuss. Of course we could B here together. I'd meet you n r New York.” He ¥ her stle as she in- &t : from him. v York or Chicago?” s s “But why meet me t} I t understand. Why not be ied here?” toward her and threw up a person does who is going nphatically and at length raising his head his eyes re- 1 the ground girl,” he said lived all your life in half-civilized California and there are many things about n larger and more advanced com- den’t understand. I've 1d vou I Joved you, and you t your welfare is of more mo- than anything in the world. ve my heart’s blood to make de in a suave “you've ties you ~py. But I am just now hardly n a position to marry. You must un- derstand that.” 1t was sai¢ Mariposa gave a low ex- elamation and rose to her feet. He ro: feeling anery with Ser fr-t . OW 55 R TANGLE D ghe had forced him to this banal ex- planation. There ware times when her stupidity could be exa i was very pale, her eyes dark, her expanded. On her face was an of pitiful bewilderment and \ didn't want to rered with trem- Then—then—you 7" she stam ant to,” he szid with a propi- t shrug Of course 1 want to. But one can't always do wh one the circum es. impe T yment, npre- ar of e Jow at aid in a s scattered, ' left her face, leav . tense. He realized that she 2oing to weep and make wound had gone deeper stebbed her to “You're tu derstand about | C 't unders 1 5 nd then strike her ) new to me.to learn quic derstand yet. 1 ) . want only that T flon’t e to , or hear you, or think of you “My dearest aid, going a step tc her, “d be s You're like a trage queer what have I done?” “I didn't think that a n could have the heart to wound any an so—any living creature, and gne who cared as I did—" she pped, unable to continus “But I wouldn't ) you for the world. Haven't 1 ju vou I loved you?” Oh, go,” sk g away from him. “Gc er come near me again ased and humiliated me € and I've kissed you and told you I loved you. - Why can’t I creep into some corner and die”” Mariposa, mw ling,” he aid raising his eyebr. it theatrica air of ince on hat is it? I'm quite at sea. You speak to me as if I'd done you a wrong, and all I've done is to offer you my deepest devo- tion. Does that offend you Yes furiously. you've got left, go—I ca any more.” he pressed her s on her face and turned from him. “Oh, don’t do that approaching her. ou unhappy? A half-hou; he s Does m id tenderly, love make ago it was not like th He suddenly, but gently, attempted to take her in his arms. Though she did not see she feit his téuch, and with v of horror tore herself away, hed past him into t adjoining room, and from that into her bedroom beycnd. The bang of the closing door fell coldly upon Essex’s ear. He stood for a moment listening and considering. He had a fancy that she might come back. The house was ab- solutely silent. Then, no sound break- ing its stilinees, no creak of an open- ing door echoing through its bare emptiness, he walked out into the hall, put on his hat and overcoat and let himself out. He was angry and dis- usted. In his thoughts he inveighed nst Mari] a's stupidity. The un- tunately downright explanation had used Ler wrath, and he did not know how deep that might be. Only as he recalled her crdering him from the ro he realized that it was not the fictitious rage he had seen before and understood Mariposa stood on the inside of her room ¢ hoiding the kncb and trying by to her breathing that she I clearly. She heard his steps, echoing on the bare floor with curious d nctnes: They were slow at first; then therc was decision in them; then the hall door banged. She leaned against the panel, her teeth pressed on her underlip, her head bowed could he? how could he?” she whispered. A tempest of anguish shook her. Bhe crept to the bed and lay there, her face buried in the pillow, moticnless and ved, till dawn. CHAPTER X THE PALE HORSE. r lay dead in his harness.” —Mac- The day broke overcast and one of those depressing days scft grayness that usher in .the early raing when the air has a heavy close- ness and the skies seem to sag with the weight of moisture that is slow to fall. There was much to do yet fn the rifled cottage, Mariposa rose to it wan and heavy-eyed. The whirl of her own thoughts during the long, sleepless night had not soothed her shame and distress. She found herself working doggedly, with her heart like lead in her breast, and her mouth feeling dry as the sceme of the evening before pressed forward to her attention. She tried to keep it in the background, but it would not down. Words, looks, sen- tences kept welling up to the surface of her nind, coloring her cheeks with a miserable ¢rimson, - filling her being with a sickness of despair, The mem- ory of the kisses followed her from reom to room, and task to task. She felt them on her lips as she moved about. the lips that had never known the kisg of a lover, and now seemed soiled and smirched forever, After luncheon the red lacquer cabi- net went away. She watched it off as the last remnant of the old life. She felt strangely indifferent to what yes- terday she thought would be so many unbearable wrenches.. Finally nothing was left but her own few po: ior gathered together In a corner of the front room—two trunks, a screen, a table, a long, old-fashjoned mirror and some piotures. Yesterday morning she had bargained with a cheap carter, picked up on the street corner, to take them for a dollar, and now she sat waiting for him, while the day grew duller outside, and the fog began to sift itself into fine rain. The servant, who was to close and lock the cottage, begged her to. go, promising tc see to the shipping of the last load. urging. She feit that spent in that dim parlor, looking out through the bay-window at the fine slant of the rain, would drive her mad. There was no promise of cheer at the Garcia boarding-house, but it was, at not haunted,with memories. Jater, with the precious the marriage certifi- leton’s gift of money, arm, ghe was climbing the Sutter street to that part of an afternoon A half-hour ier her hills from steod. he e ith deepening gloom as it revea self through the thin rain. It was a house which even then we getting old, standing back from the street on top of 2 bank, which wooden bulk- balustrade. and a was held in place by & head, surmounted by & low A gate gave access t ugh this, flight of rctting wooden steps led by zigzags to the house. The lower story in front by a balcony,, which, after the fashion of early San Francisto architecture, was encased in gl Its roof above slanted up to the wo | windows of the front bed- room. . The pepper-tree, of which Mar- iposa had spoken to Hssex, was suffi- cient to tell the age of the property and to give beauty and picturesqueness to the wshackle old place. It had re unusual growth and threw f drooping foliage over the balustrade and one long limb upon the balcony roof To-day it dripped with the rest of the world. As Mariposa let the gate bang the imnact shook a shower from the tree, which fell cn her as she passed beneath. It seemed to her a bad omen 1d added to the almost terrifying sen- tion of g Her ri whole Garcia f the hall. A the your it. He w ure baselt Behind hirr c¢herubic om that was invading her. the bell brc the i to child of t M g in the -unlllmn of moist- isequent on a game of : way home from school. d a smaller boy—of irrayed in a very sail blouse, with a still dirtier white coliar, upon which hung locks of wispy yellow hair. Mrs. Ggr- cia, the younger, came drearily for- ward. She was a thin, pretty, slattern- ly, young woman, very baggy at the st, and with the same wispy yellow bair as her son, which she wore in the popular bang. It had been smartly curled in the morning, but the damp had shown it no respect, and it hung down limply nearly into her eyes. Back of her, in the dim reaches of the hall, Mariposa saw the grandmother, the! ange old Spanish woman, who spoke English. ne small, and was wrinkled like a walnut. But as she enccuntered the girl's mis- erable gaze she gave her a gentle reas- suring smile, full ‘of that curious, pa- tient sweetness which comes in the faces of the old who have lived kindly. The younger members of the family éscorted the mew arrival upstairs. She had seen her room before, had already placed therein her piano and many of her smaller ornaments, but its bleak- ness struck her anew. She stepped on the threshold, looking at its chill, haif- furnished extent with a sudden throt- tling sense of homesickness. It was a large room, evidently once the state bedroom of the house, signs of its past glory lingering in the elaborate gilt chandelie the. white wallpaper, strewed with golden wheat-ears, and the white marble mantelpiece, with carvings of fruit a¢ the sides. Now she saw with renewed clearness of vision the threadbare carpet, with a large ink- stain by the table, the rocking-chair with one arm gone, the place on the wall behind the sofa where the heads of previous boarders had left their mark. “Your clock don’t go,” said the cher- ubic boy in a loud voice. “I've tried to malke it, but it only ticks a minute and then stops.” “There said Mrs. Gercia, with & gesture of collapsed hopelessness, “he’s been at your clock! I knew he would. Have you broken her ciock?” fiercely to the boy. “No, I ain’t,” he returned, not in the least overawéd by the maternal on- aught. “It were broke when it came.” “He did break 1 aid the other hoy suddenly. “He opened {he back door of it and stuck a hairpin in.” Mrs. Garcia made a rush at her son with the evident intention of adminis- tering corporal punishment on the spot. But with a loud, derisive shout, he eluded her and dashed through the Safe on the stairs, he cried ntly: “I ain't done it, and no one can prove “That’s the way they always act,” said Mrs. Garcia despondently, pushing up her bang so that she could the bet=- ter see her new guest. “It's no picnic having no hushand and having to glave for eve Grandma slaves, too,” said the rebel on the stairway; ‘she slaves more'n you do, and Uncle most.” p Further revelations were stopped by another ring at the bell. Visitors were evidently rare, for everybody but Mari- posa flew to the hall and precipitated themselves down the stairs. In the gen- eral interest the recent battle was for- gotten, the rebel earning his pardon by getting to the door before any age else. The newcomer was Mariposa’s express- man. She had already seen through the window the uncovered cart with her few belongings glistening with rain. The driver, a grimy youth in a steaming blouse, was standing in the doorway with the wet receipt flapping in his hand. “It's your things,” yelled the boys. “Tell him to bring them up,” said Maripo who wae now at the stair- head herself, The man stepped into the hall. and looked up at her. He had a singularly red and impudent face. “Not till I get my * half,” he said. “Two dollars and a half?” echoed Mariposa in alarm, for a dollar was be- gipning to Joo™ larger to her than it Gam slaves the 0 dollars and a Mariposa needed no special She looked very qld, snd';. ever had done before. “7* was only a dollar.” “A dollar!” he shouted. Aollar for that load!"—pointing to the street— “say, you've gut a gall Mariposa flushed. She had never been spoken to this way before in her life. She leaned over the balustrade and said haughtily “Bring in my things, and when they're up here I will give you the dol- lar you agreed upon.” The man gave a loud, derisive laugh. “That beats anything!” he said, and then roared through the door to his pard: “Say, she wants togive us a dol- lar for that load. Ain’t that rich?” There was a moment of silence in the hall. A vulgar wrangle was almost im- possible to the girl at the juncture to which the depressing and hideous events of the last few weeks had brought her. Yet she had still a glim- mer of spirit left, and her gorge rosé at the impudent swindle. “I won't pay you two dollars and a half, and 1 will have my things,” she sald. “Bring them up at once.” The man laughed again, this time with an uglier note. “1 guess not, young woman,” he said, lounging against the balustrade. “I guess you'll have to fork out the two fifty or-whistle for your things.! Mariposa made no answer. Her hand nhaklng with rage, she began to fum- ble in her pocket ‘or her purse. The wholé Garcia family, assembled in the hallway beneath, breathed audibly in the tense excitement, and kept moving their eyes from her to the expressman and back again. The Chinaman from the kitchen had joined them, listening CALL. TR Fr .fl ]‘ BEZL WHOL. 4 e with the charmed smile which the me- nialg of that race always wear on oc- casions of domestic strife. “Say,” said the man, coming a step up the stairs and assuming a suddenly threatening air, “I can't stay fooling round here all day. I want my money, and I want it quick. D’ye hear?"” Mariposa’s hand closed on the purse. She would have now paid anything to eseape from this hateful scene. At the same moment she heard a door open behind her, a quick step in the hall, and a man suddenly stood beside her at the stair-head. He was in his shirt- sleeves and he had a pen in his hand. The exure: who had mounted two or three him _and. re- coiled, looking startled. “What's the matter with you?" said the newccmer shortly. : “I Avant my miopey,” said the man doggedly, but retreating. » “Who owes you money? And what do you mean by making a row like this in this house?” “I owe him money,” said Mariposa. “I agreed to pay him a dollar for carry- ing my things here, and now he wants two and a half and won’'t give me my things unless I pay it. But I'll pay what he wants rather than fight this way." She was conscious of a slight amused smile in t' e verv keen and clear gray eyes the man beside her fastened for one listening moment on her face. “Get your dollar,” he said, “and don’t bother any more.” Then in a loud voice down the stairway: “Here, step out and get the trunks and don't let's have apy more talk about it. Ching,” '/Pcnw }:vrm 7o 7HE .DO(‘L(' to the Chinaman, “go out and help that man with this lady’s things.” The Chinaman came forward, still grinning. The expressman for a mo- ment hesitated. “Look here,” said the man in the shirt-sleeves, “I don't want to have to come downstairs, I'm busy. The expressman, with Ching behind him, hurried out. Mariposa’s deliverer stood at the stair-head watching them and slightly smiling. Then he turned to her. She was again conscious of how gray and clear his eyes looked in his sunburned face, “I was writing a letter in my room, and I heard the sound of strife long be- fore 1 realized what was happening. Why didn’t you call me?” “I' didn’t know there was any one there,” she answered. “Well, the boys ought to have known. ‘Why didn’t one of you little beggars come for me?” he said to the two boys, who were clambering slowly up the outside of the balustrade staring from the deliverer to the éxpressman, now advancing up the s{eps with Mariposa’s belongings. “I liked to see 'em fight,” sajd the smaller. “T liked i “You little scamp,” said_ the man, and, leaning over the stair-rail, caught the ascending cherub by the slack of his knickerbockers and drew him up- ward, Shrieking delightedly. On the landing he gave him a slight shake, and said: “I don’t want to hear any more of that kind of talk. Next time there's a fight, call me.” The expressman and Ching had now entered with the luggage. They came staggering up the stairs, scraping the walls with the corners of the trunks and softly swearing. Mariposa started for her room, followed by the strange man and the two boys. Her deliverer was evidently a person to whom the usages of soe matters of ind : He the room withe r ogy and about him, h bed to the gvi the rocking-chair the ink-stain »f and As arm carpet the hostilit stored and would long as the sunbur shirt-sleeeves remained. This he appeared to int. end doing. suggested a change in the places of He or two of Mariposa’'s pleces ture, and showed he her screen to hide the bed. He annoyed over a torn strip of loose v paper that hung dejected, long seam of ‘plaster like a of furn how she ¢ revealing a seared scar. Then he went to the wind and pushed back the curtains of faded rep. “There’'s a nice view from here on sunny days down intq the garden.” Mariposa felt she must show interest, and went to the window, too. Th was not clean, and the view m- manded nothing but the splendid foun- tain-like follage of the pepper-tree below a sedden strip of garden in wh limp chrysanthemums hung heads, while a ragged nasturtium v tried to protest its vigor by flaunting a few blossoms from the top of It geer 1€ ac ness. o of the aft s unutterable despondency had 1 its climax. Her sense of desolation welled suddenly up into ow ing life. It caught her by the She made a supreme effort, and a shaken voice . “It locks rather damp now."” Her companion turned from the dow. “Here, boys, he sa two boys who were attempt! t T the trunks with the clock key. You've got no business hafiging rov h pane me of reach Go down and’study your lessons They obediently the roo: Mari- posa heard their jubilantly cla - descent of the stairs. She m A tempt to leave the window, or speak to the man, who still remained r g about as if look for something light was grov try day, her face to the tears agair should come of them her hanc speechless wretchedn Prese ing to “Wh Elsie” She he ything € about n and after a m shelves and ment said wer, I want to light th without tu He ing presencs iposa sank ars pou eyes, tears in torrential vol A as her motl d shed 3 years before nt of Da s cabin Her seized her and swept her away. he.shook th it. Why e she not die and ape from this hide- ous world? It be her like a reed before a wind, and she bent her ce on the chair arm and trembled and throbbed. She did not hear the door open, nor know that her solitude was again in- vaded, till she heard the man's step be- Then she star naign side her. gled with sobs and “Is it you again? you see how mise “1 saw it the mo my room this afterr came out quietly. “I'm sorry I disturb y I only wanted to light zet the place a little mec 4 warm. It's too cold in n erying. Don't bother I'm going to light the fire She obeyed him, too abject in her mis- ery to care. He lit all the gases in the gilt chandelier, and then knelt the fireplace. Soon the snappi wood contested the silence small, pathetic noises of the w weeping. She felt—at first withont sclousness—the grateful warmth of t blaze. Presently she removed the wad of saturated handkerchief from her face. The room was inundated by a floed of light flames licking fashioned certain gleams from standing on the floor in the The man was sitting before He had his coat on now, and MariposJ} could see that he was tall and powerfu a bronzed and muscular man of abou the leaping gleam of he glaze of the few ornaments and evoking the long mirror un- corner the fire. thirty-five years of age, with a face tanned to mahogany color, thick brow hair and a brown mustache. His hand as it rested on his knee, caught her eye it was well formed, but worn as a la- borer’s, “Don’t the fire? head. She murmured a negative. “I see that your clock is all off,” he ou want to come and sit near he said, without moving his continued. “There’'s something th matter with it. I'll fix it for you this evening.” He rose and lifted the clock from the mantelpiece, It was a small timepiece of French gilt, one of the many pres ents her father had given her in their days of affluence. As he lifted it Mariposa suddenly ex- perienced a return of misery at the thought that he was going. At the idea of being again left to herself her wretchedness rushed back upon hefy mother