"Precisely. Therefore no possible good could come of an encounter between him and me, and I shall be glad if you will keep my name dark."
"As you please, though I can see no reason for secrecy in the matter."
"It is not a question of secrecy, but only of prudential reserve."
"It may be as you wish," answered the old man, carelessly. "Good-night."
He shook hands with his son, who departed without having broken bread in his father's house, a little dashed by the coldness of his reception, but not entirely without hope that some profit might arise to him out of this connection in the future.
"The girl must be found," he said to himself. "I am convinced there has been a great fortune made in that dingy hole. Better that it should go to her than to a stranger. I'm very sorry she's married; but if this Holbrook is the adventurer I suppose him, the marriage may come to nothing. Yes; I must find her. A father returned from foreign lands is rather a romantic notion—the sort of notion a girl is pretty sure to take kindly to."