‘I will! I will!’ He could hardly speak for the emotion which was choking him. Then the voice went on, but slower and weaker:

‘And Harold, my dear boy, you will look after her, will you not? Guard her and cherish her, as if you were indeed my son and she your sister!’

‘I will. So help me God!’ There was a pause of a few seconds which seemed an interminable time. Then in a feebler voice Squire Norman spoke again:

‘And Harold — bend down — I must whisper! If it should be that in time you and Stephen should find that there is another affection between you, remember that I sanction it — with my dying breath. But give her time! I trust that to you! She is young, and the world is all before her.