VI.
_From Mr. Los...o...b.. to Mrs. Noel Vanstone._
"Lincoln"s Inn Fields, May 6th.
"DEAR MADAM--I have unexpectedly received some information which is of the most vital importance to your interests. The news of Admiral Bartram"s death has reached me this morning. He expired at his own house, on the fourth of the present month.
"This event at once disposes of the considerations which I had previously endeavored to impress on you, in relation to your discovery at St. Crux. The wisest course we can now follow is to open communications at once with the executors of the deceased gentleman; addressing them through the medium of the admiral"s legal adviser, in the first instance.
"I have dispatched a letter this day to the solicitor in question. It simply warns him that we have lately become aware of the existence of a private Doc.u.ment, controlling the deceased gentleman in his use of the legacy devised to him by Mr. Noel Vanstone"s will. My letter a.s.sumes that the doc.u.ment will be easily found among the admiral"s papers; and it mentions that I am the solicitor appointed by Mrs. Noel Vanstone to receive communications on her behalf. My object in taking this step is to cause a search to be inst.i.tuted for the Trust--in the very probable event of the executors not having met with it yet-before the usual measures are adopted for the administration of the admiral"s estate.
We will threaten legal proceedings, if we find that the object does not succeed. But I antic.i.p.ate no such necessity. Admiral Bartram"s executors must be men of high standing and position; and they will do justice to you and to themselves in this matter by looking for the Trust.
"Under these circ.u.mstances, you will naturally ask, "What are our prospects when the doc.u.ment is found?" Our prospects have a bright side and a dark side. Let us take the bright side to begin with.
"What do we actually know?
"We know, first, that the Trust does really exist. Secondly, that there is a provision in it relating to the marriage of Mr. George Bartram in a given time. Thirdly, that the time (six months from the date of your husband"s death) expired on the third of this month. Fourthly, that Mr.
George Bartram (as I have found out by inquiry, in the absence of any positive information on the subject possessed by yourself) is, at the present moment, a single man. The conclusion naturally follows, that the object contemplated by the Trust, in this case, is an object that has failed.
"If no other provisions have been inserted in the doc.u.ment--or if, being inserted, those other provisions should be discovered to have failed also--I believe it to be impossible (especially if evidence can be found that the admiral himself considered the Trust binding on him) for the executors to deal with your husband"s fortune as legally forming part of Admiral Bartram"s estate. The legacy is expressly declared to have been left to him, on the understanding that he applies it to certain stated objects--and those objects have failed. What is to be done with the money? It was not left to the admiral himself, on the testator"s own showing; and the purposes for which it _was_ left have not been, and cannot be, carried out. I believe (if the case here supposed really happens) that the money must revert to the testator"s estate. In that event the Law, dealing with it as a matter of necessity, divides it into two equal portions. One half goes to Mr. Noel Vans tone"s childless widow, and the other half is divided among Mr. Noel Vanstone"s next of kin.
"You will no doubt discover the obvious objection to the case in our favor, as I have here put it. You will see that it depends for its practical realization not on one contingency, but on a series of contingencies, which must all happen exactly as we wish them to happen.
I admit the force of the objection; but I can tell you, at the same time, that these said contingencies are by no means so improbable as they may look on the face of them.
"We have every reason to believe that the Trust, like the Will, was _not_ drawn by a lawyer. That is one circ.u.mstance in our favor that is enough of itself to cast a doubt on the soundness of all, or any, of the remaining provisions which we may not be acquainted with. Another chance which we may count on is to be found, as I think, in that strange handwriting, placed under the signature on the third page of the Letter, which you saw, but which you, unhappily, omitted to read. All the probabilities point to those lines as written by Admiral Bartram: and the position which they occupy is certainly consistent with the theory that they touch the important subject of his own sense of obligation under the Trust.
"I wish to raise no false hopes in your mind. I only desire to satisfy you that we have a case worth trying.
"As for the dark side of the prospect, I need not enlarge on it. After what I have already written, you will understand that the existence of a sound provision, unknown to us, in the Trust, which has been properly carried out by the admiral--or which can be properly carried out by his representatives--would be necessarily fatal to our hopes. The legacy would be, in this case, devoted to the purpose or purposes contemplated by your husband--and, from that moment, you would have no claim.
"I have only to add, that as soon as I hear from the late admiral"s man of business, you shall know the result.
"Believe me, dear madam, faithfully yours,
"JOHN LOs...o...b..."
VII.
_From George Bartram to Miss Garth._
"St. Crux, May 15th.
"DEAR MISS GARTH--I trouble you with another letter: partly to thank you for your kind expression of sympathy with me, under the loss that I have sustained; and partly to tell you of an extraordinary application made to my uncle"s executors, in which you and Miss Vanstone may both feel interested, as Mrs. Noel Vanstone is directly concerned in it.
"Knowing my own ignorance of legal technicalities, I inclose a copy of the application, instead of trying to describe it. You will notice as suspicious, that no explanation is given of the manner in which the alleged discovery of one of my uncle"s secrets was made, by persons who are total strangers to him.
"On being made acquainted with the circ.u.mstances, the executors at once applied to me. I could give them no positive information--for my uncle never consulted me on matters of business. But I felt in honor bound to tell them, that during the last six months of his life, the admiral had occasionally let fall expressions of impatience in my hearing, which led to the conclusion that he was annoyed by a private responsibility of some kind. I also mentioned that he had imposed a very strange condition on me--a condition which, in spite of his own a.s.surances to the contrary, I was persuaded could not have emanated from himself--of marrying within a given time (which time has now expired), or of not receiving from him a certain sum of money, which I believed to be the same in amount as the sum bequeathed to him in my cousin"s will. The executors agreed with me that these circ.u.mstances gave a color of probability to an otherwise incredible story; and they decided that a search should be inst.i.tuted for the Secret Trust, nothing in the slightest degree resembling this same Trust having been discovered, up to that time, among the admiral"s papers.
"The search (no trifle in such a house as this) has now been in full progress for a week. It is superintended by both the executors, and by my uncle"s lawyer, who is personally, as well as professionally, known to Mr. Los...o...b.. (Mrs. Noel Vanstone"s solicitor), and who has been included in the proceedings at the express request of Mr. Los...o...b.. himself. Up to this time, nothing whatever has been found. Thousands and thousands of letters have been examined, and not one of them bears the remotest resemblance to the letter we are looking for.
"Another week will bring the search to an end. It is only at my express request that it will be persevered with so long. But as the admiral"s generosity has made me sole heir to everything he possessed, I feel bound to do the fullest justice to the interests of others, however hostile to myself those interests may be.
"With this view, I have not hesitated to reveal to the lawyer a const.i.tutional peculiarity of my poor uncle"s, which was always kept a secret among us at his own request--I mean his tendency to somnambulism.
I mentioned that he had been discovered (by the housekeeper and his old servant) walking in his sleep, about three weeks before his death, and that the part of the house in which he had been seen, and the basket of keys which he was carrying in his hand, suggested the inference that he had come from one of the rooms in the east wing, and that he might have opened some of the pieces of furniture in one of them. I surprised the lawyer (who seemed to be quite ignorant of the extraordinary actions constantly performed by somnambulists), by informing him that my uncle could find his way about the house, lock and unlock doors, and remove objects of all kinds from one place to another, as easily in his sleep as in his waking hours. And I declared that, while I felt the faintest doubt in my own mind whether he might not have been dreaming of the Trust on the night in question, and putting the dream in action in his sleep, I should not feel satisfied unless the rooms in the east wing were searched again.
"It is only right to add that there is not the least foundation in fact for this idea of mine. During the latter part of his fatal illness, my poor uncle was quite incapable of speaking on any subject whatever. From the time of my arrival at St. Crux, in the middle of last month, to the time of his death, not a word dropped from him which referred in the remotest way to the Secret Trust.
"Here then, for the present, the matter rests. If you think it right to communicate the contents of this letter to Miss Vanstone, pray tell her that it will not be my fault if her sister"s a.s.sertion (however preposterous it may seem to my uncle"s executors) is not fairly put to the proof.
"Believe me, dear Miss Garth, always truly yours,
"GEORGE BARTRAM.
"P. S.--As soon as all business matters are settled, I am going abroad for some months, to try the relief of change of scene. The house will be shut up, and left under the charge of Mrs. Drake. I have not forgotten your once telling me that you should like to see St. Crux, if you ever found yourself in this neighborhood. If you are at all likely to be in Ess.e.x during the time when I am abroad, I have provided against the chance of your being disappointed, by leaving instructions with Mrs.
Drake to give you, and any friends of yours, the freest admission to the house and grounds."
VIII.
_From Mr. Los...o...b.. to Mrs. Noel Vanstone._
"Lincoln"s Inn Fields, May 24th.
"DEAR MADAM--After a whole fortnight"s search--conducted, I am bound to admit, with the most conscientious and unrelaxing care--no such doc.u.ment as the Secret Trust has been found among the papers left at St. Crux by the late Admiral Bartram.
"Under these circ.u.mstances, the executors have decided on acting under the only recognizable authority which they have to guide them--the admiral"s own will. This doc.u.ment (executed some years since) bequeaths the whole of his estate, both real and personal (that is to say, all the lands he possesses, and all the money he possesses, at the time of his death), to his nephew. The will is plain, and the result is inevitable.
Your husband"s fortune is lost to you from this moment. Mr. Georg e Bartram legally inherits it, as he legally inherits the house and estate of St. Crux.
"I make no comment upon this extraordinary close to the proceedings.
The Trust may have been destroyed, or the Trust may be hidden in some place of concealment inaccessible to discovery. Either way, it is, in my opinion, impossible to found any valid legal declaration on a knowledge of the doc.u.ment so fragmentary and so incomplete as the knowledge which you possess. If other lawyers differ from me on this point, by all means consult them. I have devoted money enough and time enough to the unfortunate attempt to a.s.sert your interests; and my connection with the matter must, from this moment, be considered at an end.
"Your obedient servant,
"JOHN LOs...o...b..."
IX.
_From Mrs. Ruddock (Lodging-house Keeper) to Mr. Los...o...b..._
"Park Terrace, St. John"s Wood, June 2d.
"SIR--Having, by Mrs. Noel Vanstone"s directions, taken letters for her to the post, addressed to you--and knowing no one else to apply to--I beg to inquire whether you are acquainted with any of her friends; for I think it right that they should be stirred up to take some steps about her.
"Mrs. Vanstone first came to me in November last, when she and her maid occupied my apartments. On that occasion, and again on this, she has given me no cause to complain of her. She has behaved like a lady, and paid me my due. I am writing, as a mother of a family, under a sense of responsibility--I am not writing with an interested motive.