The subject was so plainly full of a peculiar pain for him, he was so ill at mind on this point, that I could not find it in my heart to pursue it further at the cost of his feelings.  So we talked of other things:  of gold, and the placers, and their unimpaired productiveness, —­of the prospects of the country, and of the character the mineral element must stamp upon its politics, its commerce, and its social system,—­of San Francisco, and all the enchantments of its sudden upspringing,—­of Alcaldes and town-councils,—­of hounds and gamblers,—­of real estate and projected improvements,—­of canvas houses, and iron houses, and fires,—­of sudden fortunes, and as sudden failures,—­of speculations and markets, and the prices of clothing, provisions, and labor,—­of intemperance, disease, and hospitals,—­of brawls, murder, and suicide,—­till we had exhausted all the Californian budget; and then I bade him good day.  He parted with me with flattering reluctance, cordially shaking my hand and urging me to repeat my visit in a few days, when he should be sufficiently forward with the picture to admit me to a sight of it.  I confessed my impatience for the interval to pass; for my interest was now fully awakened and very lively;—­so well-informed and so polished a gentleman, so accomplished and so fluent, so ill-starred and sad, so every way a man with a history!

I saw much of Pintal after this, and he sometimes visited me at my office.  Impelled by increasing admiration and esteem, I succeeded by the exercise of studious tact in ingratiating myself in his friendship and confidence; he talked with freedom of his feelings and his affairs; and although he had not yet admitted me to the knowledge of his past, he evinced but little shyness in speaking of the present.  At our interviews in his tent I seldom met his wife; indeed, I suspected him of contriving to keep her out of the way; for I was always told she had just stepped out;—­or if by chance I found her there, she was never again vulgarly loquacious, but on some pretext or other at once took herself away.  On the other hand, the child was rarely absent,—­from which I argued that I was in favor; nor was his pretty prattle, even his boldest communicativeness, harshly checked, save when, as I guessed, he was approaching too near some forbidden theme.  Then a quick flash from his father’s eye instantaneously imposed silence upon him:  as if that eye were an evil one, and there were a malison in its glance, the whole demeanor of the child underwent at once a magical change; the foreboding look took possession of his beautiful eyes, the anxious lines appeared around his mouth, his lips and chin became tremulous, his head drooped, he let fall my hand which he was fond of holding as he talked, and quietly, penitently slunk away; and though he might presently be recalled by his father’s kindliest tones, his brightness would not be restored that time.