At length, when the sun was well
up, she rose in her bed, and her eyes opened.
"What are you doing here, father?" she said.
"I have come to see where you were, dear. You are generally out by now."
"I suppose that I must have overslept myself then," she replied wearily.
"But it does not seem to have refreshed me much, and my head aches. Oh!
I remember," she added with a start. "I have had such a horrid dream."
"What about?" he asked as carelessly as he could.
"I can't recall it quite, but it had to do with Mr. Meyer," and she
shivered. "It seemed as though I had passed into his power, as though he
had taken possession of me, body and soul, and forced me to tell him all
the secret things."
"What secret things, Benita?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know now, but we went away among dead people, and I told him
there. Oh! father, I am afraid of that man--terribly afraid! Protect me
from him," and she began to cry a little.
"Of course I will protect you, dear. Something has upset your nerves.
Come, dress yourself and you'll soon forget it all. I'll light the
fire."
A quarter of an hour later Benita joined him, looking pale and shaken,
but otherwise much as usual. She was ravenously hungry, and ate of the
biscuits and dried meat with eagerness.
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