You know, my dear boy, that I am your father's oldest friend, and right sure I am that he would approve of what I say.

You must come home with me to live.

I know that in his last hours the great concern of your dear father's heart would have been for the future of his boy.

And I know, too, that it was a comfort to him to feel that you and I are such friends, and that the son of my dearest old friend would be as a son to me.

We have been friends, you and I, a long time, Harold; and we have learned to trust, and I hope to love, one another.