“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 LOSCOMBE.”

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 circumstances, 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 assurances 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 circumstances gave a color of probability to an otherwise incredible story; and they decided that a search should be instituted 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. Loscombe (Mrs. Noel Vanstone’s solicitor), and who has been included in the proceedings at the express request of Mr. Loscombe 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.