His romantic belief in the interposition of Providence was not without a tendency to apply the ordinary rules of human evidence to such phenomena.

Sister Seraphina's application to him seemed little short of miraculous interference; but what if it were only a trick to get rid of him, while the girl, whose escapade had been discovered, was either under restraint in the convent, or hiding in Santa Luisa?
Yet this did not prevent him from mechanically continuing his arrangements for departure.

When they were completed, and he had barely time to get to the station at San Luis, he again lingered in vague expectation of some determining event.
The appearance of a servant with a telegraphic message at this moment seemed to be an answer to this instinctive feeling.

He tore it open hastily.

But it was only a single line from his foreman at the mine, which had been repeated to him from the company's office in San Francisco.