It began when Norton Moore, a rotten limb of one of the grandest trees in San Francisco Society--so respectable they didn't know there was any side to life but their own--sneaked Mrs.Lawton and three girls out of his mother's house one night when she was givin' a ball, put 'em in a hack and took 'em down to Gabrielle's.

There they spent an hour lookin' at Gabrielle's swell bunch dressed up and doin' the grand society act with some of the men-about-town.

Then they danced some and opened a bottle or two.
"I never heard that this little jaunt hurt the girls any, but it woke up something in Mrs.Lawton.After that--well, there are stories without end.

Won't take up your time tellin' them.

The upshot was that one night Lawton, who took a fling himself once in a while, met her at Gabrielle's or some other joint, and she went East a day or two after.