The Californians, Page 2

  II

  Don Roberto Yorba had escaped the pecuniary extinction that hadovertaken his race. Of all the old grandees who, not forty years before,had called the Californias their own: living a life of Arcadianmagnificence, troubled by few cares, a life of riding over vast estatesclad in silk and lace, botas and sombrero, mounted upon steeds asgorgeously caparisoned as themselves, eating, drinking, serenading atthe gratings of beautiful women, gambling, horse-racing, taking part insplendid religious festivals, with only the languid excitement of anoccasional war between rival governors to disturb the placid surface oftheir lives,--of them all Don Roberto was a man of wealth andconsequence to-day. But through no original virtue of his. He had beenas princely in his hospitality, as reckless with his gold, as meagrelyequipped to cope with the enterprising United Statesian who firstconquered the Californian, then, nefariously, or righteously,appropriated his acres. When Commodore Sloat ran up the American flag onthe Custom House of Monterey on July seventh, 1846, one of themidshipmen who went on shore to seal the victory with the strength ofhis lungs was a clever and restless youth named Polk. As his sharpnessand fund of dry New England anecdote had made him a distinctive positionon board ship, he was permitted to go to the ball given on the followingnight by Thomas O. Larkin, United States Consul, in honour of theCommodore and officers of the three warships then in the bay. Havinglittle liking for girls, he quickly fraternised with Don Roberto Yorba,a young hidalgo who had recently lost his wife and had no heart forfestivities, although curiosity had brought him to this ball whichcelebrated the downfall of his country. The two men left theball-room,--where the handsome and resentful senoritas were preparing toavenge California with a battery of glance, a melody of tongue, and awitchery of grace that was to wreak havoc among these gallantofficers,--and after exchanging amenities over a bowl of punch, went outinto the high-walled garden to smoke the cigarito. The perfume of thesweet Castilian roses was about them, the old walls were a riot of pinkand green; but the youths had no mind for either. The don was fascinatedby the quick terse common-sense and the harsh nasal voice of theAmerican, and the American's mind was full of a scheme which he was notlong confiding to his friend. A shrewd Yankee, gifted with insight, andof no small experience, young as he was, Polk felt that the idlepleasure-loving young don was a man to be trusted and magnetic withpotentialities of usefulness. He therefore confided his consuming desireto be a rich man, his hatred of the navy, and, finally, hisdetermination to resign and make his way in the world.

  "I haven't a red cent to bless myself with," he concluded. "But I've gotwhat's more important as a starter,--brains. What's more, I feel thepower in me to make money. It's the only thing on earth I care for; andwhen you put all your brains and energies to one thing you get it,unless you get paralysis or an ounce of cold lead first."

  The Californian, who had a true grandee's contempt for gold, wasnevertheless charmed with the engaging frankness and the unmistakablesincerity of the American.

  "My house is yours," he exclaimed ardently. "You will living with me,no? until you find the moneys? I am--how you say it?--delighted. AlwaysI like the Americanos--we having a few. All I have is yours, senor."

  "Look here," exclaimed Polk. "I won't eat any man's bread for nothing,but I'll strike a bargain with you. If you'll stand by me, I'll stand byyou. I mean to make money, and I don't much care how I do make it; thisis a new place, anyhow. But there's one thing I never do, and that is togo back on a friend. You'll need me, and my Yankee sharpness may be thegreatest godsend that ever came your way. I've seen more or less of thiscountry. It's simply magnificent. Americans will be swarming over theplace in less than no time. They've begun already. Then you'll be justnowhere. Is it a bargain?"

  "It is!" exclaimed Don Roberto, with enthusiasm; and when Polk hadexplained his ominations more fully, he wrung the American's hand again.

  Polk, after much difficulty, but through personal influence which he wasfortunate enough to possess, obtained his discharge. He immediatelybecame the guest of Don Roberto, who lived with his younger sister on aranch covering three hundred thousand acres, and, his first intentionbeing to take up land, was initiated into the mysteries ofhorse-raising, tanning hides, and making tallow; the two last-namedindustries being pursued for purposes of barter with the Bostonskippers. But farming was not to Polk's taste; he hated waiting on theslow processes of Nature. He married Magdalena Yorba, and borrowed fromDon Roberto enough money to open a store in Monterey stocked with suchnecessities and luxuries as could be imported from Boston. When thefacile Californians had no ready money to pay for their wholesalepurchases, he took a mortgage on the next hide yield, or on a smallranch. His rate of interest was twelve per cent; and as the Californianswere never prepared to pay when the day of reckoning came, he foreclosedwith a promptitude which both horrified Don Roberto and made imperiousdemands upon his admiration.

  "My dear Don," Polk would say, "if it isn't I, it will be some one else.I'm not the only one--and look at the squatters. I'm becoming a richman, and if I were not, I'd be a fool. You had your day, but you werenever made to last. Your boots are a comfortable fit, and I propose towear them. I don't mean yours, by the way. I'm going to look after you.Better think it over and come into partnership."

  To this Don Roberto would not hearken; but when the rush to the goldmines began he was persuaded by Polk to take a trip into the San Joaquinvalley to "see the circus," as the Yankee phrased it. There, incommunity with his brother-in-law, he staked off a claim, and there thelust for gold entered his veins and never left it. He returned toMonterey a rich man in something besides land. After that there waslittle conversation between himself and Polk on any subject but moneyand the manner of its multiplication; and, as the years passed, andPolk's prophecy was fulfilled, he gave the devotion of a fanatic to theretention of his vast inheritance and to the development of his graftedfinancial faculty.

  Between the mines, his store, and his various enterprises in SanFrancisco, Polk rapidly became a wealthy man. Even in those days he wasaccounted an unscrupulous one, but he was powerful enough to hold theopinion of men in contempt and too shrewd to elbow such law as therewas. And his gratitude and friendship for Don Roberto never flickered.He advised him to invest his gold in city lots, and as himself boughtadjoining ones, Don Roberto invested without hesitation. Polk hadacquired a taste for Spanish cooking, cigaritos, and life on horseback;his influences on the Californian were far more subtle andrevolutionising. Don Roberto was still hospitable, because it became agrandee so to be; but he had a Yankee major-domo who kept an account ofevery cent that was expended. He had no miserly love of gold in theconcrete, but he had an abiding sense of its illimitable power, all ofhis brother-in-law's determination to become one of the wealthiest andmost influential men in the country, and a ferocious hatred of poverty.He saw his old friends fall about him: advice did them no good, and anypermanent alliance with their interests would have meant his own ruin;so he shrugged his shoulders and forgot them. The American flag alwaysfloated above his rooms. In time he and Polk opened a bank, and he satin its parlour for five hours of the day; it was the passion of hismaturity and decline. When Polk's sister, some eleven years after theOccupation of California by the United States, came out to visit thebrother who had left her teaching a small school in Boston, he marriedher promptly, feeling himself blessed in another New England relative.She was thirty-two at the time, and her complexion was dark and sallow:but she carried her tall angular figure with impressive dignity, and herchill manners gave her a certain distinction. Don Roberto was delightedwith her, and as she was by nature as economical as his familiar coulddesire, he dismissed the major-domo and gave her _carte blanche_ at thelargest shops in the city; even if he had wished it, she could not havebeen induced to buy more than four gowns a year. But she was a veryambitious woman. As the wife of a great Californian grandee, she hadseen herself the future leader of San Francisco society. Her ambitionswere realised in a degree only. Don Roberto built her a huge woodenpalace on Nob Hill
,--on which was the highest flagstaff and the biggestflag in San Francisco,--placed a suitable number of servants at hercommand, and gave her a carriage. But he only permitted her to give twolarge dinners and one ball during the season, and would go to otherpeople's entertainments but seldom. As their ideas of duty were equallyrigid, she would not go without him; but they had a circle of intimateand aristocratic friends with whom they lunched and dinedinformally,--the Polks, the Belmonts, the Montgomerys, the Tarltons, theBrannans, the Gearys, and the Folsoms.

  They had been married ten years when Magdalena, their only child, wasborn.