and the young lady who wrote the society news in diary form for
one of the San Francisco weekly papers had held forth at much length
upon the hotel's "unbroken succession of festivities." She had also
noted that "prominent among the newest arrivals" had been Mr. Nat
Ridgeway, of San Francisco, who had brought down from the city, aboard
his elegant and sumptuously fitted yacht "Petrel," a jolly party,
composed largely of the season's debutantes. To be mentioned in the
latter category was Miss Josie Herrick, whose lavender coming-out tea
at the beginning of the season was still a subject of comment among the
gossips--and all the rest of it.

The "Petrel" had been in the harbor but a few days, and on this evening
a dance was given at the hotel in honor of her arrival. It was to be a
cotillon, and Nat Ridgeway was going to lead with Josie Herrick. There
had been a coaching party to Tia Juana that day, and Miss Herrick had
returned to the hotel only in time to dress. By 9:30 she emerged from
the process--which had involved her mother, her younger sister, her
maid, and one of the hotel chambermaids--a dainty, firm-corseted little
body, all tulle, white satin, and high-piled hair. She carried Marechal
Niel roses, ordered by wire from Monterey; and about an hour later, when
Ridgeway gave the nod to the waiting musicians, and swung her off to the
beat of a two-step, there was not a more graceful little figure upon the
floor of the incomparable round ballroom of the Coronado Hotel.

The cotillon was a great success. The ensigns and younger officers of
the monitor--at that time anchored off the hotel--attended in uniform;
and enough of the members of what was known in San Francisco as the
"dancing set" were present to give the affair the necessary entrain.
Even Jerry Haight, who belonged more distinctly to the "country-club
set," and who had spent the early part of that winter shooting elk in
Oregon, was among the ranks of the "rovers," who grouped themselves
about the draughty doorways, and endeavored to appear unconscious each
time Ridgeway gave the signal for a "break."

The figures had gone round the hall once. The "first set" was out again,
and as Ridgeway guided Miss Herrick by the "rovers" she looked over the
array of shirt-fronts, searching for Jerry Haight.

"Do you see Mr. Haight?" she asked of Ridgeway. "I wanted to favor
him this break. I owe him two already, and he'll never forgive me if I
overlook him now."

Je