Story 1--Chapter XVI.
Absence Explained.
It was Pierre Robideau who stood once more in the presence of Lena Rook—not in her presence alone, for they were locked in each other’s embrace.
From the first moment of seeing him, the young girl had felt strange thoughts stealing over her—weird memories, awakened by that manly presence that scarce seemed unknown to her.
She knew that Pierre Robideau still lived, and that her father had compelled her to keep it a secret. But why, she knew not, nor why her father had sent him away. It was well she knew not this.
Equally ignorant had she been kept as to where he had gone.
California, her father told her; and this was indeed true. But what knew she of California? Nothing beyond the fact of its being a far distant land, where people went to gather gold.
This much was known to every one in the settlements around—every one in America.