tenance an act of injustice. I will
not be your executor, unless Verner's Pride goes, as it ought, to Lionel
Verner."

"Lionel has forfeited it."

"Forfeited it!--how can he have forfeited it? Is this"--Mr. Bitterworth
was given to speak in plain terms when excited--"is this the underhand
work of Mrs. Verner?"

"Peace, Bitterworth! Mrs. Verner knows nothing of the change. Her
surviving son knows nothing of it; John knew nothing of it. They have no
idea but that Lionel is still the heir. You should not jump to unjust
conclusions. Not one of them has ever asked me how my property was left;
or has attempted, by the smallest word, to influence me in its
disposal."

"Then, what has influenced you? Why have you done it?" demanded Mr.
Bitterworth, his voice becoming more subdued.

To this question Mr. Verner did not immediately reply. He appeared not
to have done with the defence of his wife and her sons.

"Mrs. Verner is not of a covetous nature; she is not unjust, and I
believe that she would wish the estate willed to Lionel, rather than to
her sons. She knows no good reason why it should not be willed to him.
And for those sons--do you suppose either of them would have gone out
to Australia, had he been cognisant that he was heir to Verner's
Pride?"

"Why have you willed it away from Lionel?"

"I cannot tell you," replied Mr. Verner, in a tone of sharp pain. It
betrayed to Mr. Bitterworth what sharper pain the step itself must have
cost.

"It is _this_ which has been on your mind, Verner--disturbing your
closing years?"

"Ay, it is that; nothing else!" wailed Mr. Verner, "nothing else,
nothing else! Has it not been enough to disturb me?" he added, putting
the question in a loud, quick accent. "Setting aside my love for Lionel,
which was great, setting aside my finding him unworthy, it has been a
bitter trial to me to leave Verner's Pride to a Massingbird. I have
never loved the Massingbirds," he continued, dropping his voice to a
whisper.

"If Lionel _were_ unworthy,"--with a stress upon the "were,"--"you might
have left it to Jan," spoke Mr. Bitterworth.

"Lady Verner has thrown too much estrangement between Jan and me. No. I
would rather even a Massingbird had it than Jan."

"If Lionel were unworthy, I said," resumed Mr. Bitterworth. "I cannot
believe he is. How has he proved himself so? What has he done?"

Mr. Verner put up his hands as if to ward off some imaginary phantom,
and his pale face turned o