Without knowing why, she felt embarrassed, and changed the subject.
The next day they drove to the Convent of Santa Clara and the Mission
College of San Jose. Their welcome at both places seemed to Rose to be a
mingling of caste greeting and spiritual zeal, and the austere seclusion
and reserve of those cloisters repeated that suggestion of an Old World
civilization that had already fascinated the young Western girl. They
made other excursions in the vicinity, but did not extend it to a visit
to their few neighbors. With their reserved and exclusive ideas this
fact did not strike Rose as peculiar, but on a later shopping
expedition to the town of San Jose, a certain reticence and aggressive
sensitiveness on the part of the shopkeepers and tradespeople towards
the Randolphs produced an unpleasant impression on her mind. She could
not help noticing, too, that after the first stare of astonishment which
greeted her appearance with her hostess, she herself was included in
the antagonism.
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