ecount. "The letter to the admiral is not written yet.
Your will there is a body without a soul--an Adam without an Eve--until
the letter is completed and laid by its side. A little more dictation
on my part, a little more writing on yours, and our work is done. Pardon
me. The letter will be longer than the will; we must have larger paper
than the note-paper this time."

The writing-case was searched, and some letter paper was found in it of
the size required. Mrs. Lecount resumed her dictation; and Noel Vanstone
resumed his pen.

"Baliol Cottage, Dumfries,

"November 3d, 1847.

"Private.

"DEAR ADMIRAL BARTRAM--When you open my Will (in which you are named my
sole executor), you will find that I have bequeathed the whole residue
of my estate--after payment of one legacy of five thousand pounds--to
yourself. It is the purpose of my letter to tell you privately what the
object is for which I have left you the fortune which is now placed in
your hands.

"I beg you to consider this large legacy as intended, under certain
conditions, to be given by you to your nephew George. If your nephew is
married at the time of my death, and if his wife is living, I request
you to put him at once in possession of your legacy; accompanying it by
the expression of my desire (which I am sure he will consider a sacred
and binding obligation on him) that he will settle the money on his
wife--and on his children, if he has any. If, on the other hand, he is
unmarried at the time of my death, or if he is a widower--in either of
those cases, I make it a condition of his receiving the legacy, that he
shall be married within the period of--"

Mrs. Lecount laid down the Draft letter from which she had been
dictating thus far, and informed Noel Vanstone by a sign that his pen
might rest.

"We have come to the question of time, sir," she observed. "How long
will you give your cousin to marry, if he is single, or a widower, at
the time of your death?"

"Shall I give him a year?" inquired Noel Vanstone.

"If we had nothing to consider but the interests of Propriety," said
Mrs. Lecount, "I should say a year too, sir--especially if Mr. George
should happen to be a widower. But we have your wife to consider, as
well as the interests of Propriety. A year of delay, between your death
and your cousin's marriage, is a dangerously long time to leave the
disposal of your fortune in suspense. Give a determined woman a year to
plot and contrive