NO NAME.
BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE WOMAN IN WHITE," &c.

BETWEEN THE SCENES (CONTINUED).
VI.
FROM MR. LOSCOMBE 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 endeavoured
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 despatched 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 Document, controlling the deceased
gentleman in his use of the legacy devised to
him by Mr. Noel Vanstone's will. My letter
assumes that the document 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 instituted 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 anticipate 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 circumstances, you will
naturally ask— 'What are our prospects when the
document 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 certainly
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
mouths 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
Vanstone'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 favour, as I have
here put it. You will see that it depends for its
practical realisation, 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 favour—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