She | Page 9

having been buried among the {irenes}
(young commanders), apart from the other Spartans and the Helots.--L.
H. H.
He paused a while, his head sunk upon his hand, and then continued--
"My marriage had diverted me from a project which I cannot enter into
now. I have no time, Holly--I have no time! One day, if you accept my
trust, you will learn all about it. After my wife's death I turned my mind
to it again. But first it was necessary, or, at least, I conceived that it was
necessary, that I should attain to a perfect knowledge of Eastern
dialects, especially Arabic. It was to facilitate my studies that I came
here. Very soon, however, my disease developed itself, and now there
is an end of me." And as though to emphasise his words he burst into
another terrible fit of coughing.
I gave him some more whisky, and after resting he went on--
"I have never seen my boy, Leo, since he was a tiny baby. I never could
bear to see him, but they tell me that he is a quick and handsome child.
In this envelope," and he produced a letter from his pocket addressed to
myself, "I have jotted down the course I wish followed in the boy's
education. It is a somewhat peculiar one. At any rate, I could not
entrust it to a stranger. Once more, will you undertake it?"

"I must first know what I am to undertake," I answered.
"You are to undertake to have the boy, Leo, to live with you till he is
twenty-five years of age--not to send him to school, remember. On his
twenty-fifth birthday your guardianship will end, and you will then,
with the keys that I give you now" (and he placed them on the table)
"open the iron box, and let him see and read the contents, and say
whether or no he is willing to undertake the quest. There is no
obligation on him to do so. Now, as regards terms. My present income
is two thousand two hundred a year. Half of that income I have secured
to you by will for life, contingently on your undertaking the
guardianship--that is, one thousand a year remuneration to yourself, for
you will have to give up your life to it, and one hundred a year to pay
for the board of the boy. The rest is to accumulate till Leo is
twenty-five, so that there may be a sum in hand should he wish to
undertake the quest of which I spoke."
"And suppose I were to die?" I asked.
"Then the boy must become a ward of Chancery and take his chance.
Only be careful that the iron chest is passed on to him by your will.
Listen, Holly, don't refuse me. Believe me, this is to your advantage.
You are not fit to mix with the world--it would only embitter you. In a
few weeks you will become a Fellow of your College, and the income
that you will derive from that combined with what I have left you will
enable you to live a life of learned leisure, alternated with the sport of
which you are so fond, such as will exactly suit you."
He paused and looked at me anxiously, but I still hesitated. The charge
seemed so very strange.
"For my sake, Holly. We have been good friends, and I have no time to
make other arrangements."
"Very well," I said, "I will do it, provided there is nothing in this paper
to make me change my mind," and I touched the envelope he had put
upon the table by the keys.

"Thank you, Holly, thank you. There is nothing at all. Swear to me by
God that you will be a father to the boy, and follow my directions to the
letter."
"I swear it," I answered solemnly.
"Very well, remember that perhaps one day I shall ask for the account
of your oath, for though I am dead and forgotten, yet I shall live. There
is no such thing as death, Holly, only a change, and, as you may
perhaps learn in time to come, I believe that even that change could
under certain circumstances be indefinitely postponed," and again he
broke into one of his dreadful fits of coughing.
"There," he said, "I must go, you have the chest, and my will will be
found among my papers, under the authority of which the child will be
handed over to you. You will be well paid, Holly, and I know that you
are honest, but if you betray my trust, by Heaven, I will haunt you."
I said nothing, being, indeed, too bewildered to speak.
He held up the candle, and looked at his own face in