“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 document—­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 circumstance 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.