The tone of “The Californian’s Tale” is a primarily anxious and desperate one. The story is narrated by an unnamed prospector who has little joy in his life until he comes across Henry’s comforting cottage, where he learns that the beautiful young woman who decorated it (Henry’s wife) will be returning home in but a few days’ time. Rather than relaxing into this comfortable dwelling and waiting patiently for Henry’s wife to return, the narrator, like Henry, becomes increasingly anxious about her arrival, seemingly tying his happiness to her appearance.
The following passage captures both men's anxious and desperate tones as Henry's worries over his wife's delayed arrival and the narrator is so on edge he loses patience with his host:
“I’m getting worried, I’m getting right down worried. I know she’s not due till about nine o’clock, and yet something seems to be trying to warn me that something’s happened. You don’t think anything has happened, do you?”
I began to get pretty thoroughly ashamed of him for his childishness; and at last, when he repeated that imploring question still another time, I lost my patience for the moment, and spoke pretty brutally to him.
Here, the narrator’s anxiety comes across in his description of Henry “repeat[ing] that imploring question still another time” before losing his patience with the man and speaking “pretty brutally to him.” Henry’s obsessive worrying also contributes to the anxious tone of the story overall. Both men are desperate for Henry’s wife to arrive and remove all their worries via her gentle feminine ways, yet, as readers learn at the end of the story, Henry’s wife disappeared 19 years earlier and hasn't been heard from since. The story ends before readers get to see the narrator's emotional reaction to this news, leaving it in an unresolved place.
