Madame de Santos, Mademoiselle
Isabel Valois, with their maids, and Raoul, "en cavalier." On the
same steamer, Pere Francois travels. He affects no intimacy with
the distinguished voyagers. His breviary takes up all his time.
Arrived at New York, Pere Francois leaves for San Francisco several
days in advance of the others.
It is singular that he goes no farther than Sacramento. The
legislature is about to assemble. Joseph Woods, as State senator,
is launched in political life. The robust miner laughs when he is
asked why he accepts these cheap honors.
"I'm not too old to learn some new tricks," he cheerfully remarks.
His questions soon exhaust Pere Francois' stock of answers.
A day's conference between the friends leads to a series of
Napoleon-like mandates of the mining Croesus. Telegraph and cable
bear abroad to the shores of the Lake of Geneva the summons which
brings Peyton, with Armand Valois and the lovely blooming "Louise
Moreau," secretly to the Pacific. Natalie knows nothing of these
pilgrims. Quietly reaching San Francisco, by a local train, Pere
Francois becomes again Padre Francisco. He rests his weary head
under the hallowing sounds of the well-remembered bells of the past
at the Mission Dolores.
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