the future of all his people."

I listened with admiration.

"So much for the legal dispositions of the will, sir," said the notary,
when he had finished reading it out.

"Now I have a sealed letter to hand to you, which your uncle charged me
to give after his death to you alone. I was instructed in the case of
your death preceding his, to destroy it without acquainting myself with
its purport. You will understand, therefore, that I know nothing of its
contents, which are for you only to read. Have the kindness, please, to
sign this receipt, declaring that you find the seals unbroken, and that
I have left it in your possession."

He presented a paper, which I read and signed.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Not quite, sir," he replied, as he took another package out of his
pocket. "Here is a document similarly sealed which was addressed to me.
I was only to open it in the case of your uncle's will becoming null and
void through your death preceding his. This document, he told me, would
then give effect to his final wishes. Your presence being duly
established, my formal written instructions are to burn this document,
now rendered useless and purposeless, before your eyes."

Again he made me attest that the seals were untampered with, and taking
up a candle from the writing-table and lighting it, he forthwith
committed to the flames this secret document the provisions of which we
were not to know. He then departed.

When left alone, and still affected by these lively recollections of my
poor uncle, I began to think of the letter which the notary had left
with me. I divined some mystery in it, and had a vague presentiment that
it would contain a decree of my destiny. This last message from him,
coming as it were from the tomb, revived in my heart the grief which had
hardly yet been allayed. At last, trembling all the while, I tore open
the envelope. These were its contents:--

"My Dear Boy,

"When you read this, I shall have done with this world. Please me by not
giving way too much to your grief, and act like a man! You know my ideas
about death: I have never allowed myself to be prejudiced into regarding
it as an evil, convinced as I have been, that it is nothing but the
transition which leads us to a superior state of existence. Adopt this
view, and do not cry over me like a child. I have lived my life; now it
is your turn. My desire is, that this old friend of yours should be
cherished in your memory: you shal