A-Splendid-Ruin(24)

The waiter poured the champagne and left.

Jerome said, “Well,” and lifted his glass.

Goldie lurched to her feet. “Excuse me.” She pushed past Thomas and me.

Thomas looked after her in concern. “I suppose I should go after her.”

“No, I’ll go.” Apparently I was not to be bored after all. This was so out of character for my cousin that I had to know the reason. So I did exactly what Goldie wished for me to do—I hurried off in search of her. She was walking so quickly that she was already gone by the time I stepped from the dining room. I saw no sign of her until I went out onto the porch, and spotted her striding down the pathway to the beach.

I ran after her. “Goldie, what is it?”

Goldie shrugged my hand from her shoulder and kept walking. She was crying. “I’m fine. Truly.”

I had not known my cousin long, that was true. But to see her this way, so discomposed, affected me more than I expected. I had no idea what to do, or what to say. All I could do was accompany her and give her my handkerchief. Goldie took it, but only clenched it in her fist.

Warily, I said, “Why does she matter to you? What did she do?”

Goldie frowned at me. “Who?”

“Mrs. Hoffman. I don’t understand. She seemed perfectly polite. I know she didn’t come to my party, but—”

“Mrs. Hoffman?” she repeated dully. “Oh, you perfect idiot, May. It isn’t about Mrs. Hoffman, at least not today.”

“It was him then? That man?”

She stared out over the water at a passing steamer, and then without a word, walked on through the dry and shifting sand and sat.

I hesitated. My skirt was new, one of those we’d bought at the Emporium, and I had not yet gained my cousin’s habit of heedlessness. But I was no longer poor May who had to do her own laundry, and when I sat beside Goldie, there was a certain satisfaction in being so heedless myself.

Goldie wrapped her arms about her knees. “I was engaged to him.”

“You were engaged? When?”

“A year ago. I was nineteen. He’s quite a catch. His family is one of the most prominent in San Francisco. His father came from New York and made his fortune in the gold mines. Stephen’s a lawyer and he’s handsome and rich, everything a girl could want.”

“You can tell that he knows it.”

Goldie’s laugh was very small and short. “Oh yes.”

“What was he doing with Mrs. Hoffman?”

“His mother and Mrs. Hoffman cochair the Ladies’ Aid. No doubt it’s something to do with their annual charity ball, or the Friday Night Cotillion Club. He’s a friend of Ned Greenway.”

“Who’s Ned Greenway?”

“You remember—you read about him in the society column. He runs the Cotillion Club. Everyone wants to get in but no one joins it without Ned Greenway’s approval. When Stephen and I were engaged, I was all set to be a member. I had my gown and everything. But then, well . . .”

“The engagement was off,” I put in.

Goldie scowled. “I even met with Mr. Greenway personally to convince him that I didn’t need to be Mrs. Oelrichs to belong, but he’s really such a precious little snob.”

“So this Cotillion Club is important?”

“Oh, I thought it was then, but it’s really just a stupid dance club. Very staid and boring. I don’t know why anyone wants to spend their Fridays drinking lemonade and following Ned Greenway’s silly rules when there are so many more interesting things to do. Don’t ask me how he got to be so important. He’s just a stupid champagne salesman.”

“Everyone likes champagne,” I offered.

“It’s not that. He’s very clever. He managed to do favors for Mr. Hoffman and after that it was just a hop and a skip to his wife. Stephen’s mother too. Mrs. Oelrichs organized the best-attended charity ball three years ago. Mother was on the committee then.”

I tried to imagine my aunt on such a committee and couldn’t. “Did Aunt Florence do a great deal of charity work?”

Goldie rolled her eyes. “She used to say that she liked to feel needed.”

I filed that away. Being needed sounded at least interesting, something of purpose to fill the wasted hours.

“But that’s how I was introduced to Stephen, and that’s what Mother really wanted,” Goldie went on. “Old San Francisco money. The Oelrichs name. Their house is one of those old and creaking places on Van Ness.”

I didn’t understand how important that was. “Not Nob Hill?”

“Oh no. They’d never build there.” She laughed shortly. “They’re such hypocrites.”

“What do you mean?”

“They sneer at everything that hasn’t been in San Francisco a hundred years—as if anyone has but the Californios! But really it’s that they don’t have the money to build a house like ours, so they pretend they don’t want to. I’ll bet talk of today has already reached Mr. Bandersnitch. Another chance for Stephen to humiliate me. I swear it’s his favorite thing to do.”

“How can he humiliate you? Why would he? Is he angry that you ended the engagement?”

Goldie dug her fingers into the sand, lifting a palmful, letting it fall like water. “I didn’t end it. He did.”