Price, with decision. "It's quite fashionable in
San Francisco, and just the thing to do."
To this decision Spindler, in his blind faith in the widow's management,
weakly yielded. An announcement in the "Weekly Banner" that, "On
Christmas evening Richard Spindler, Esq., proposed to entertain his
friends and fellow citizens at an 'at home,' in his own residence,"
not only widened the breach between him and the "boys," but awakened an
active resentment that only waited for an outlet. It was understood that
they were all coming; but that they should have "some fun out of it"
which might not coincide with Spindler's nor his relatives' sense of
humor seemed a foregone conclusion.
Unfortunately, too, subsequent events lent themselves to this irony of
the situation.
He was so obviously sincere in his intent, and, above all, seemed to
place such a pathetic reliance on her judgment, that she hesitated to
let him know the shock his revelation had given her. And what might his
other relations prove to be? Good Lord! Yet, oddly enough, she was so
prepossessed by him, and so fascinated by his very Quixotism, that it
was perhaps for these complex reasons that she said a little stiffly:--
"One of these cousins, I see, is a lady, and then there is your niece.
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