“You think possibly she would have implicated herself if she had told me the truth?”
“I do. But the chief reason I asked you to call and see me to-night is to learn for what reason you have been induced to go on a visit to this Mrs. Bond.”
“Because Benton suggested it. He told me that Scotland Yard knew of my presence in Kensington, making further residence there dangerous.”
“H’m!” And the man with the black glove paused again.
“You don’t like Benton, do you?”
“I have no real reason to dislike him. He has always been very friendly towards me—as he was to my late father. The only thing which causes me to hold aloof from him as much as I can is the strange clause in my father’s will.”
“Strange clause?” echoed the old man. “What clause?”
“My father, in his will, cut me off every benefit he could unless I married Benton’s adopted daughter, Louise. If I marry her, then I obtain a quarter of a million. I at first thought of disputing the will, but Mr. Charman, our family solicitor, says that it is perfectly in order. The will was made in Paris two years before his death. He went over there on some financial business.”
“Was Benton with him?” asked Mr. Peters.
“No. Benton went to New York about two months before.”