f a leaden hue.

"Never ask me," he whispered. "I cannot tell you. I have had to bear it
about with me," he continued, with an irrepressible burst of anguish;
"to bear it here, within me, in silence; never breathing a word of my
knowledge to him, or to any one."

"Some folly must have come to your cognisance," observed Mr.
Bitterworth; "though I had deemed Lionel Verner to be more free from the
sins of hot-blooded youth than are most men. I have believed him to be a
true gentleman in the best sense of the word--a good and honourable
man."

"A silent stream runs deep," remarked Mr. Verner.

Mr. Bitterworth drew his chair nearer to his friend, and, bending
towards him, resumed solemnly--

"Verner's Pride of right (speaking in accordance with our national
notions) belonged to your brother, Sir Lionel. It would have been his,
as you know, had he lived but a month or two longer; your father would
not have willed it away from him. After him it would have been Lionel's.
Sir Lionel died too soon, and it was left to you; but what injunction
from your father accompanied it? Forgive my asking you the question,
Stephen."

"Do you think I have forgotten it?" wailed Mr. Verner. "It has cost me
my peace--my happiness, to will it away from Lionel. To see Verner's
Pride in possession of any but a Verner will trouble me so--if, indeed,
we are permitted in the next world still to mark what goes on in
this--that I shall scarcely rest quiet in my grave."

"You have no more--I must speak plainly, Stephen--I believe that you
have no more right in equity to will away the estate from Lionel, than
you would have were he the heir-at-law. Many have said--I am sure you
must be aware that they have--that you have kept him out of it; that you
have enjoyed what ought to have been his, ever since his grandfather's
death."

"Have _you_ said it?" angrily asked Mr. Verner.

"I have neither said it nor thought it. When your father informed me
that he had willed the estate to you, Sir Lionel being dead, I answered
him that I thought he had done well and wisely; that you had far more
right to it, for your life, than the boy Lionel. But, Stephen, I should
never sanction your leaving it away from him after you. Had you
possessed children of your own, they should never have been allowed to
shut out Lionel. He is your elder brother's son, remember."

Mr. Verner sat like one in dire perplexity. It would appear that there
was a struggle going on in hi