he will explain to
you, in great measure removed by the present condition of my family,
which will enable me to make such settlements as I could wish in the
ease of one so nearly connected with me; so that I am enabled to entreat
of you at length to reward the persevering constancy so well deserved.
I have a further, and a personal cause for wishing that the event
should not be deferred, as regard for my feelings might have led you to
propose. You are aware of the present state of my health, and that
it has become expedient to make immediate arrangements for the future
guardianship of my little boy. His uncles are of course his natural
guardians, and I have unbounded confidence in both; but Alexander
Keith's profession renders it probable that he may not always be at
hand, and I am therefore desirous of being able to nominate yourself,
together with my brother, among the personal guardians. Indeed, I
understand from Alexander Keith, that such was the express wish of his
sister. I mention this as an additional motive to induce you to consent.
For my own part, even without so stringent a cause, all that I have
ever seen or known of yourself would inspire me with the desire that you
should take a mother's place towards my son. But you must be aware that
such an appointment could only be made when you are already one of the
family, and this it is that leads me to entreat you to overlook any
appearance of precipitancy on my brother's part, and return a favourable
reply to the request, which with my complete sanction, he is about to
address to you.

"Yes, Ermine Williams, forgive all that is past, and feel for an old,
it may be, a dying man, and for a motherless infant. There is much to
forget, but I trust to your overcoming any scruples, and giving me all
the comfort in your power, in thinking of the poor child who has come
into the world under such melancholy circumstances.

"Yours most truly,

"Keith of Gowanbrae"

"Poor Keith, he has given me his letter open, his real anxiety has been
too much at last for his dignity; and now, my Ermine, what do you say to
his entreaty? The state of the case is this. How soon this abscess may
be ready for the operation is still uncertain, the surgeons think it
will be in about three weeks, and in this interval he wishes to complete
all his arrangements. In plain English, his strongest desire