She moved away from the telephone to a chair wherein she dropped as if exhausted, hands knitted together in her lap, her chin resting on her chest. "You see," said the man, "I wanted to spare you the knowledge that you were being held up by your fond parent." "I should have known you," she said, "but for that disguise--the beard and motor-coat." "That just goes to show that filial affection will out," commented the man. "You haven't seen me for seven years--" "Except on the steamer," she corrected. "True, but there I kept considerately out of your way." "Considerately!" she echoed in a bitter tone. "Can you question it?" he asked, lightly ironic, moving noiselessly to and fro while appraising the contents of the room with swift, searching glances. "As, for instance, your actions tonight...." "They simply prove my contention, dear child." He paused, gazing down at her with a quizzical leer. "My very presence here affirms my entire devotion to your welfare." She looked up, dumfounded by his effrontery. "Is it worth while to waste your time so?" she enquired. "You failed the first time tonight, but you can't fail now; I'm alone, I can't oppose you, and you know I won't raise an alarm. Why not stop talking, take what you want and go? And leave me to be accused of theft unless I choose to tell the world--what it wouldn't believe--that my own father stole the necklace from me!" "Ah, but how unjust you are!" exclaimed the man. "How little you know me, how little you appreciate a father's affection!" "And you tried to rob me not two hours ago!" "Yes," he said cheerfully: "I admit it. If I had got away with it then--well and good. You need never have known who it was. Unhappily for both of us, you fooled me." "For both of us?" she repeated blankly. "Precisely. It puts you in a most serious position. That's why I'm here--to save you." In spite of her fatigue, the girl rose to face him. "What do you mean?" "Simply that between us we've gummed this business up neatly--hard and fast. You see--I hadn't any use for that hat; I stopped in at an all-night telegraph station and left it to be delivered to Miss Landis, never dreaming what the consequences would be. Immediately thereafter, but too late, I learned--I've a way of finding out what's going on, you know--that Miss Landis had already put the case in the hands of the police. It makes it very serious for you--the bandbox returned, the necklace still in your possession, your wild, incredible yarn about meaning to restore it ..."