o so
firm and dry, trembled.

"Mrs. Gerome, I intend to take Elsie's place. You had confidence in
her sagacity and penetration, and know that she was cautious in all
things. During her long illness she studied my character and
antecedents, and finally begged me to take you under my guardianship
when she could no longer watch over you. She was importunate in her
appeal, and to comfort and compose her I gave her a solemn promise
that at her death I would take her place. You may deem me intrusive,
and perhaps presumptuously impertinent, but time proves all
things, and, after a little while, you will cling to me as you so long
clung to her. I shall wait patiently for your confidence; shall
deserve,--and then exact it. You need a strong arm to curb and guide
you,--you need a true, honest heart, to sympathize with your sorrows
and difficulties,--you need a fearless friend to defend you from the
assaults of gossip and malice; and all these, if God spares my life,
I am resolved to be to you. You can not repulse, or offend, or
chill, or wound me, for my word is sacredly pledged to the dead; and,
by the grace of God, I will strictly and fully redeem it, when we
meet at the last day."

The earnestness of his manner, the grave resolution of his tone, and
the invincible fearlessness with which his clear, calm, penetrating
eyes, looked into hers, seemed momentarily to overawe her; and she sat
quite still, pondering his unexpected words. Pressing her cold fingers
very gently, he continued,--

"Elsie had such confidence in my discretion, and friendly interest in
your welfare, that she requested me to warn her of her approaching
dissolution in order that she might communicate something, which she
assured me she desired to confide to me before her death. The
paralysis of her tongue prevented the fulfilment of her wish, but you
saw how keenly she suffered from her inability to utter what was
pressing on her heart. You can not have forgotten that her last act
was to put your hand in mine, and you heard my solemn acceptance of
the charge committed to me."

An expression of dread that bordered on horror, came over her ghastly
face, and her hands grasped his, almost spasmodically.

"Did she hint what she wished to tell you? Did you guess it all?"

"No. Whatever her secret may have been, it passed unuttered into that
realm where all mysteries are solved. I neither know nor surmise the
nature of her desired revelation, but some day when