He drives into
Lagunitas. Its fields looked never so fair. Seated in the mansion
house, with every luxury spread out before him, his delighted eye
rests on the diamond lake gleaming in the bosom of the fair landscape.
It already seems his own.
He settles in his easy-chair with an air of conscious lordship.
Padre Francisco, studiously polite, answers every deft question.
He bears himself with the self-possession of a man merely doing
his duty.
Does the priest know of the hidden gold mines? No. A few desultory
questions prove this. "Kaintuck's" lips are sealed forever in
death. The secret is safe.
Padre Francisco does not delay his request to be allowed to depart.
As he sips his ripe Mission claret, he tells Judge Hardin of the
desire of years to return to France. There are now no duties here
to hold him longer. He desires to give the Judge such family papers
as are yet in his charge. He would like practical advice as to his
departure. For he has grown into his quiet retreat and fears the
outer world.
With due gravity the lawyer agrees in the change. He requests the
padre to permit him to write his San Francisco agent of the arrival
of the retiring missionary.
"If you will allow me," he says, "my agent shall furnish your
passage to Paris and arrange for all your wants.
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