“My dear daughter, I want you to take this letter as an instruction—­ absolute and imperative, and admitting of no deviation whatever—­in case anything untoward or unexpected by you or by others should happen to me.  If I should be suddenly and mysteriously stricken down—­either by sickness, accident or attack—­you must follow these directions implicitly.  If I am not already in my bedroom when you are made cognisant of my state, I am to be brought there as quickly as possible.  Even should I be dead, my body is to be brought there.  Thenceforth, until I am either conscious and able to give instructions on my own account, or buried, I am never to be left alone—­not for a single instant.  From nightfall to sunrise at least two persons must remain in the room.  It will be well that a trained nurse be in the room from time to time, and will note any symptoms, either permanent or changing, which may strike her.  My solicitors, Marvin & Jewkes, of 27B Lincoln’s Inn, have full instructions in case of my death; and Mr. Marvin has himself undertaken to see personally my wishes carried out.  I should advise you, my dear Daughter, seeing that you have no relative to apply to, to get some friend whom you can trust to either remain within the house where instant communication can be made, or to come nightly to aid in the watching, or to be within call.  Such friend may be either male or female; but, whichever it may be, there should be added one other watcher or attendant at hand of the opposite sex.  Understand, that it is of the very essence of my wish that there should be, awake and exercising themselves to my purposes, both masculine and feminine intelligences.  Once more, my dear Margaret, let me impress on you the need for observation and just reasoning to conclusions, howsoever strange.  If I am taken ill or injured, this will be no ordinary occasion; and I wish to warn you, so that your guarding may be complete.

“Nothing in my room—­I speak of the curios—­must be removed or displaced in any way, or for any cause whatever.  I have a special reason and a special purpose in the placing of each; so that any moving of them would thwart my plans.

“Should you want money or counsel in anything, Mr. Marvin will carry out your wishes; to the which he has my full instructions.”

          “AbelTrelawny.”

I read the letter a second time before speaking, for I feared to betray myself.  The choice of a friend might be a momentous occasion for me.  I had already ground for hope, that she had asked me to help her in the first throe of her trouble; but love makes its own doubtings, and I feared.  My thoughts seemed to whirl with lightning rapidity, and in a few seconds a whole process of reasoning became formulated.  I must not volunteer to be the friend that the father advised his daughter to have to aid her in her vigil; and yet that one glance had a lesson which I must not ignore.  Also, did not she, when she wanted help, send to me—­to me a stranger, except for one meeting at a dance and one brief afternoon of companionship on the river?  Would it not humiliate her to make her ask me twice?  Humiliate her!  No! that pain I could at all events save her; it is not humiliation to refuse.  So, as I handed her back the letter, I said: