“Yes,” answered Benita. “I refuse to deliver my will into the keeping of any living man, and least of all into yours, Mr. Meyer.”
He turned to her father with a gesture of despair.
“Cannot you persuade her, Clifford? She is your daughter, she will obey you.”
“Not in that,” said Benita.
“No,” answered Mr. Clifford. “I cannot, and I wouldn’t if I could. My daughter is quite right. Moreover, I hate this supernatural kind of thing. If we can’t find this gold without it, then we must let it alone, that is all.”
Meyer turned aside to hide his face, and presently looked up again, and spoke quite softly.
“I suppose that I must accept my answer, but when you talked of any living man just now, Miss Clifford, did you include your father?”
She shook her head.
“Then will you allow him to try to mesmerize you?”
Benita laughed.