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."