his father on his behalf, and,
with this thought in his mind, he unfolded the sheet of foolscap and
read as follows:--

"My much-loved Son,--You will see by the date of this letter that my
dearest boy Valentine is between seventeen and eighteen years of age
when I write it. I perceive a possible peril for him, and my brother
being old, there is no one to whom I can so naturally appeal on his
behalf as to you.

"I have had great anxiety about you lately, but now you are happily
restored to me from the sea, and I know that I may fully trust both to
your love and your discretion.

"Some men, my dear Giles, are happy enough to have nothing to hide. I am
not of that number; but I bless God that I can say, if I conceal aught,
it is not a work of my own doing, nor is it kept secret for my own sake.

"It is now seven weeks since I laid in the grave the body of my aged
mother. She left her great-grandson, Peter Melcombe, the only son of my
nephew Peter Melcombe, whose father was my fourth brother, her sole
heir.

"I do not think it wise to conceal from you that I, being her eldest
surviving son, desired of her, that she would not--I mean, that I forbad
my mother to leave her property to me.

"It is not for me to judge her. I have never done so; for in her case I
know not what I could have done, but I write this in the full confidence
that both of you will respect my wishes; and that you, Giles, will never
divulge my secret, even to Valentine, unless what I fear should come to
pass, and render this necessary.

"If Peter Melcombe, now a child, should live to marry, and an heir
should be born to him, then throw this letter into the fire, and let it
be to you as if it had never been written. If he even lives to come of
age, at which time he can make a will and leave his property where he
pleases, you may destroy it.

"I do not feel afraid that the child will die, it is scarcely to be
supposed that he will. I pray God that it may not be so; but in case he
should--in case this child should be taken away during his minority, I
being already gone--then my grandfather's will is so worded that my son
Valentine, my only son, will be his heir.

"Let Valentine know in such a case that I, his dead father, who
delighted in him, would rather have seen him die in his cradle, than
live by that land and inherit that gold. I have been poor, but I have
never turned to anything at Melcombe with one thought that it could mend
my case; a