Half of that income I have secured to you by will for life contingently on your undertaking the guardianshipthat 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 Ispoke."
"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 worldit 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 Ihave 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 shall I 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 here that change could under certain circumstances be indefinitely postponed," and again he broke into one of his dreadful fits of coughing.