'
'Do you honour me by--' asked the younger man, much agitated.
'Not by asking you to solve that problem! But let me add your name.
What I want is a guardian, who will not violently break up the home
and disperse the children. I believe Felix will be a competent young
head if he is allowed, and I want you to be an elder brother to him,
and let him act.'
'You cannot give me greater comfort.'
'Only, Audley, this must be on one condition. Never let this
guardianship interfere with any higher work that you may be called
to. If I thought it would bind you down to Bexley, or even to
England, I should refrain from this request as a temptation. Mind,
you are only asked to act in case the children should lose their
mother, and then only to enable Felix to be what I believe he can and
will be. Or, as it may be right to add, if he should fail them, you
will know what to do.'
'I do not think he will.'
'Nor I. But there are ways of failing besides the worst. However, I
do not greatly fear this illness of mine taking root in them. It has
not been in the family before; and I am nearly sure that I know when
I took the infection, four or five years ago, from a poor man in
Smoke-jack Alley, who would let no one lift him but me.
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