Drake to give you, and any friends of yours, the freest admission to the
house and grounds."
VIII.
_From Mr. Loscombe to Mrs. Noel Vanstone._
"Lincoln's Inn Fields, May 24th.
"DEAR MADAM--After a whole fortnight's search--conducted, I am bound to
admit, with the most conscientious and unrelaxing care--no such document
as the Secret Trust has been found among the papers left at St. Crux by
the late Admiral Bartram.
"Under these circumstances, the executors have decided on acting under
the only recognizable authority which they have to guide them--the
admiral's own will. This document (executed some years since) bequeaths
the whole of his estate, both real and personal (that is to say, all the
lands he possesses, and all the money he possesses, at the time of his
death), to his nephew. The will is plain, and the result is inevitable.
Your husband's fortune is lost to you from this moment. Mr. Georg e
Bartram legally inherits it, as he legally inherits the house and estate
of St. Crux.
"I make no comment upon this extraordinary close to the proceedings.
The Trust may have been destroyed, or the Trust may be hidden in some
place of concealment inaccessible to discovery.
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