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 b