California, Southern -- Fiction; Motion picture industry -- Fiction; Petroleum industry and trade -- Fiction; Political fiction
“Harve,” said Annabelle, “there’s time for you to show Mr. Ross over the
place before dinner.” And so Bunny got to see what a country place could
be like, so that he could make his father give him one. But Harvey
Manning did not make a very good escort. To show off a show-place you
need some one of an admiring disposition, whereas “Harve” had seen too
many places, and was inclined to patronize them all.
There were almost as many buildings on this estate as there were tanks
at the Paradise refinery; only these were Gothic tanks, with miniature
towers and steeples and crenellations and machicolations. There was no
chapel or place of worship, nor tombs of ancient abbots; but there was a
gymnasium, with a swimming pool of green marble, and a bowling alley,
and squash courts and tennis courts, and a nine hole golf course, and a
polo field—everything you would find at the most elaborate country
club. There was a stable with saddle horses ridden mostly by grooms, and
a library read only by motion picture directors looking up local
color—or at any rate that was Harvey’s tale about it.
Also there was a regular menagerie of local creatures. The hired men and
their youngsters had discovered that such gifts pleased the master, so
they brought in everything they could capture. There was an enclosed
park with deer and mountain sheep, and heavily barred dens with grizzly
bears shambling over the rocks, and wild cats and coyotes and mountain
lions dozing in the shade. There was a giant dome covered with netting,
with a big dead tree inside, and eagles seated thereon. An eagle in his
native state, sailing with supreme dominion through the azure deep of
air, has been a thrilling theme for poets; but sitting in a cage he is a
melancholy object. “Some of your red friends in jail!” Harvey Manning
remarked in passing.
But even the most blasé man of the world has something in which he is
interested, so Bunny found. Presently his guide took out his watch and
remarked that it was nearly six-thirty, and they must get back to the
house. He was “on the water wagon” until that hour of each day, and when
it drew near, he was about ready to jump out of his skin. So they
strolled back, and a Chinese boy clad in white duck had evidently
learned to expect him, and was on hand with a tray. Harvey took two
drinks, to make up for lost time, and then he sighed contentedly, and
revealed that he could talk without a drawl.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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