Sleeping Fires

lled through the rocky gulches of Nob Hill. But San Francisco had its Rincon Hill and South Park, Howard an

," were large, simple, and stately. Those on the three long streets had deep gardens before them, with willow trees and oaks above the flower beds, quaint ugly statues, and fo

heavy bushes of Castilian roses were the only reminder in this already modern San Francisco of the Spain that had made California a land of r

cient men whose belief in the rapid growth of the city to the north and west was justified in due course, but which sheltered

ve been seen crawling fearfully down the steep hills or floundering through the sand until they reached Market Stree

this was her housewarming. It was safe to say that her rooms would be crowded, and not merely because her Sunday receptions were the most important minor functions in San Francisco: it was possible that Dr. Talbot and his bride

n whose power was rooted in the Fifties; Maria and Sally Ballinger, Marguerite McLane, and Guadalupe Hathaway, whose blue large talking Spanish eyes had made her the belle of many seasons: all met to discuss the disquieting news of

rounded in San Francisco by beautiful and vivacious girls, but had always proclaimed himself a man's man, avowed he had seen too much of babies and "

en before, but he had taken a Northern wife; he had not even had the grace to go to

e to that sacrosanct circle; the exceptions were due to sheer personality. Southerners were aristocrats. The North was plebeian. That was final. Since the war

ted an outrage, and at Mrs. McLane's on that former Sunday afternoon, there had been no pretence at indifference. The subject was thoroughly discussed. It was possible that the c

me obscure person with nothing in her favor but youth, or

; and a man's man wandering alone at the age of forty was almost foredo

k to one of them again if they insulted his wife. But a Bostonian, a possible nobody! And homely, of

after they docked in San Francisco. If, by any chance, the woman were presentable, dressed herself with some regard to the fashion (which was more than Mrs. Abbott and Gu

fish enters our quiet bay. Only by the most rigid code and watchfulness have we formed and preserved a society similar to that we were accustomed to in the old South. If we lowered our barriers w