bable
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 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 on