"But, these children of my uncle's?" said I.

"Oh, sir! everything is in order! The Turkish law not recognising

marriages contracted abroad with unbelievers, excepting in the case of

certain prescribed formalities which your uncle happens to have

neglected to go through, it results that his will expresses his

deliberate intentions. Moreover, he had during his lifetime provided for

the future of all his people."

I listened with admiration.

"So much for the legal dispositions of the will, sir," said the notary,

when he had finished reading it out.

"Now I have a sealed letter to hand to you, which your uncle charged me

to give after his death to you alone. I was instructed in the case of

your death preceding his, to destroy it without acquainting myself with

its purport. You will understand, therefore, that I know nothing of its

contents, which are for you only to read. Have the kindness, please, to

sign this receipt, declaring that you find the seals unbroken, and that

I have left it in your possession."

He presented a paper, which I read and signed.

"Is that all?" I asked.

"Not quite, sir," he replied, as he took another package out of his

pocket. "Here is a document similarly sealed which was addressed to me.

I was only to open it in the case of your uncle's will becoming null and

void through your death preceding his. This document, he told me, would

then give effect to his final wishes. Your presence being duly

established, my formal written instructions are to burn this document,

now rendered useless and purposeless, before your eyes."

Again he made me attest that the seals were untampered with, and taking

up a candle from the writing-table and lighting it, he forthwith

committed to the flames this secret document the provisions of which we

were not to know. He then departed.

When left alone, and still affected by these lively recollections of my

poor uncle, I began to think of the letter which the notary had left

with me. I divined some mystery in it, and had a vague presentiment that

it would contain a decree of my destiny. This last message from him,

coming as it were from the tomb, revived in my heart the grief which had

hardly yet been allayed. At last, trembling all the while, I tore open

the envelope. These were its contents:-

"My Dear Boy,

"When you read this, I shall have done with this world. Please me by not

giving way too much to your grief, and act like a man! You know my ideas

about death: I have never allowed myself to be prejudiced into regarding

it as an evil, convinced as I have been, that it is nothing but the

transition which leads us to a superior state of existence. Adopt this

view, and do not cry over me like a child. I have lived my life; now it

is your turn. My desire is, that this old friend of yours should be

cherished in your memory: you shall join him with you in your happiness,

by believing that he takes part in it.




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