"What do you wish to do?" she asked, timidly.
"I saw your father early in the New Year, on New Year's Day, and I promised him I would find you, and persuade you to return home," he replied.
"I cannot do that," said Janet, firmly. "It is impossible. You would be the first to say so, if you knew all."
"Tell me all, and let me judge what is best to be done," he replied.
"That, also, is impossible, I know you mean well, and I thank you for your kindness."
"Your father will be very glad to have you back; he will forget the past; he has long since forgiven you, but not the man who tempted you to leave home. I wish I had known what you were about to do the night I left home. I would have stopped you and saved you at any cost."
Janet Todd shuddered. She was glad he had not met her and Warren Courtly, or there was no telling what might have happened.
"I cannot undo all I have done," she said. "Some day it may be possible for me to go back to my father without any danger or trouble to others, but at present I cannot. Believe me, I would do so if it were possible."
"Consider well what you are saying," he said. "If I give your father your address he will come and take you away, you cannot refuse to go with him."
"You must not do it—indeed you must not," pleaded Janet, earnestly. "Oh, if you only knew, you would leave the house at once. It is better for you to go and forget you have seen me." He was surprised at her agitation, which he saw was genuine. There was something in the background he could not understand, and her father had thrown out hints in the same way. What was the mystery, and why was it necessary to keep him in the dark?