“Oh, auntie, I don’t care even the least little bit what people say. I don’t care for the people in our set, which means three or four hundred people that I don’t care the snap of my finger for, anyway; and who do not care at all for me. Then, what is the use of trying all the time to keep up with society? I like my friends, and I hope I have some friends who like me really in return; but I don’t care for society, as you call it, at all.” Mabel and her aunt were not all likely ever to have the same ideas of society, as Mrs. Maynard was one of those women who all her life had lived for society, and struggled continually to be a leader, but as yet her ambition was ungratified, for, though she was a prominent figure socially, she was by no means a leader; whereas, Mabel, having lost her mother in early childhood, had been the companion, more or less, of her father, a man kindhearted and thoroughly good, but who regarded social duties as rather a bore, and consequently Mabel saw the world through his eyes and had learned, very young, the bitter lesson of disenchantment as far as the social system was concerned. It was all a sham to her, and, as she was eighteen when her aunt and cousin Lucy came to form a part of their household, the ideas of the two girls were very different. CHAPTER II. The day on which the bark sailed was one of those clear, bright days that are so delightful in San Francisco, when the brisk breeze blowing in from the sea, bringing the color to the cheeks and giving one an indescribable feeling of thankfulness for the mere fact of being alive. As Mabel stood on the deck, dressed in a jaunty sailor suit, she made as pretty a picture as one could wish to see, with the soft curly locks of golden hair blown out from under a snug little cap about her sweet face, and among the large party of friends who had come down to see the vessel off that was to carry Mabel on her eventful trip, there was at least one young man, if not more, who thought her by far, the handsomest as well as the brightest girl he knew, and felt that he would like very much to tell her so. But Mabel had a peculiar way of her own of keeping young men at a friendly distance, and the young man who looked at her with such a longing in his heart had not dared to speak of love to her, fearing to meet the fate of more than one of his acquaintances, for already she had had a number of offers of marriage, for she was not only a girl of wonderful beauty, but also exceedingly fascinating and entertaining. She had every accomplishment that could be taught a woman of the present day. Then another fact that may have had its influence on some of her suitors was that her father was what is commonly called a rich man and she an only child.