The Californians
Page 34
IV
When Magdalena drew the dagger out of her hair that night, she laughed alittle and tossed it into her handkerchief box. She had seen men carriedoff their feet for the first time, not caring whether the world laughedor not. She had also noted the exact order of homage that she was toexpect from men. Helena infatuated. The other girls inspired admirationin varying measure. Respect for her father's millions was her portion.She had watched and compared all the evening. It would have distressedand appalled her had she made her debut last winter. As it was, itmattered little.
Occasionally there is a lively winter in San Francisco. This promised tobe almost brilliant. There were six balls in the next two weeks. At eachHelena's triumphs were reiterated. The men waited in a solid bodybetween the front door and the staircase, and she had promised, divided,and subdivided every dance before she had set foot on the lowest step.It was almost impossible to begin a party until her arrival. Kettledrumshad been inaugurated the previous winter, and hardly a man been got tothem. Now the men would have begged for invitations. They even began toattend church; and Helena's "evening" was so crowded that she wasobliged to ask five or six of her girl friends to help her. Alan Rush,Eugene Fort, Carter Howard, a Southerner of charming manners, infinitetact, and little conversation, and "Dolly" Webster, a fledgeling ofenormous length and well-proportioned brain, were her shadows, herserfs, her determined, trembling adorers. They barely hated one another,so devoured were they by the sovereign passion; and as they were treatedwith exasperating similitude, there was nothing to set them at oneanother's throats.
Helena had all the gifts and arts of the supreme coquette. She alluredand mocked, appealed and commanded; adapted herself with the supplenessof bronze to mould, with enchanting flashes of egotism; discarded allperception of man's existence in the abstract, when she had surrenderedher attention to one, to jerk him out of his heaven by ordering him togo and send her his rival; possessed a quickness of intuition whichfinished a man's sentences with her eyes, an exquisite sympathy whichmade a man feel that here at last he was understood (as he would wishhimself understood, rather than as he understood himself); an audacitywhich never failed to surprise, and never shocked; a fund of talk whichnever wore itself into platitudes, and a willing ear; and an absoluteconfidence in herself and her destiny. In addition she had great beauty,the high light spirits of her mercurial temperament, a charming andequable manner (when not engaged in judiciously tormenting her slaves),and a shrewd brain. What wonder that her sovereignty was something forthe men who worshipped her to remember when they too were old beaux, andthat their present condition was abject? The wonder was that the womendid not hate her; but so impulsive and unaffected a creature disarms herown sex, particularly when her gowns are faultless, and she is notlifeless in their company, to scintillate the moment a man enters theroom.
And they forbore to criticise the dictates of her royal fancy. It istrue that she deferred to no one's opinion, but she escaped criticismnevertheless. If she capriciously refused to dance at a party, but satthe night through with one man, not recognising the existence of herlowering train, people merely smiled and shrugged their shoulders,saving their scowls for those who were not the fashion. Sometimes theseflirtations took place in the open ball-room, sometimes in theconservatory; it was all one to Helena, whose powers of concentrationamounted to genius. At one of the Presidio hops she spent theevening--it was moonlight--in a boat on the bay with an officer who wasas accomplished a flirt as herself. The appearance of Rush, Fort,Howard, and Webster upon this occasion was pitiable. On her evening, ifshe tired of her admirers before they could reasonably be expected toleave, she walked out of the room without excuse and went to bed. Shenot only ran to fires when the humour seized her, but she commanded herquartette to rush every time the alarm sounded, that they might be ather beck in the event of officious policemen. As fires are frequent inSan Francisco, these enamoured young men were profoundly thankful whenthey occurred at such times as they happened to be in their tyrant'spresence: they were willing to bundle into their clothes at two in themorning, or to leave their duties at midday, were they sure of meetingher; but as she was as capricious about fires as about everything else,their chances were as one in ten. They hinted once that she might advisethem of her pleasure by telephone, but were peremptorily snubbed. Helenanever made concessions.
It was at the end of the second month that her father imported a coachfrom New York. She had driven since her baby days, and could handle fourhorses as scientifically as one. Thereafter, one of the sights of GoldenGate Park on fine afternoons was Helena on the box of the huge black andyellow structure, tooling a party of her delighted friends, her fatherbeside her, one of her admirers crouched at her indifferent shoulder. Itwas the only gentleman's coach in California, for in the Eighties theyouth of the city had not turned their wits and prowess to sport. Few ofthem could drive with either grace or assurance, and Helena'saccomplishment was the more renowned. Occasionally Colonel Belmont wasallowed to drive, a favour which he enjoyed with all the keenness of hisdashing youth.
"I told you how it would be," said Ila to Rose. "She is not only belle,but leader. That's the real reason Caro's gone to New York. We arenowhere. I'd turn eccentric, regularly shock people, if I had the goodluck to be the fashion. But I've got to marry well. When I have--you'llsee."
"We can't all be raving belles," said Rose. "If Helena were so much asdoubled, the men would be gibbering idiots. I don't care, so long as Ihave a good time; and I hold my own. So do you. As for Tiny, she may notbe mobbed, but she has one man in love with her after another. As soonas poor Charley Rollins got his conge, Bob Payne took the vacant seat,and I see a third climbing over the horizon with business in his eye.There can be only one sun, but we're all stars of the first magnitude."
"But we'd each like to be the sun, all the same."