Let the will say what it says now; and
let the letter (which is your secret and his) tell him the truth. Say
that, in leaving him your fortune, you leave it with the request that he
will take his legacy with one hand from you, and give it with the other
to his nephew George. Tell him that your trust in this matter rests
solely on your confidence in his honor, and on your belief in his
affectionate remembrance of your father and yourself. You have known the
admiral since you were a boy. He has his little whims and oddities; but
he is a gentleman from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot;
and he is utterly incapable of proving false to a trust in his honor,
reposed by his dead friend. Meet the difficulty boldly, by such a
stratagem as this; and you save these two helpless men from your wife's
snare, one by means of the other. Here, on one side, is your will, which
gives the fortune to the admiral, and sets her plotting accordingly. And
there, on the other side, is your letter, which privately puts the money
into the nephew's hands!"
The malicious dexterity of this combination was exactly the dexterity
which Noel Vanstone was most fit to appreciate.
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