sent his ghost
to secure it. In a less degree, Mrs. Verner and Dr. West were
interested; the one in her son, the other in that son's wife. But the
doctor was not an inmate of Verner's Pride; and Mrs. Tynn could have
testified that she had been present in the room and never left it during
each of the doctor's professional visits, subsequent to the drawing out
of the codicil. As for Mrs. Verner, she had not been out of her bed. Mr.
Verner, at the last, had gone off suddenly, without pain, and there had
been no time to call his wife. Mrs. Tynn excused the negligence by
saying she did not think her master had been quite so near his end; and
it was a true excuse. But no one dreamed of attaching suspicion to Mrs.
Verner, or to Dr. West. "I'd rather it had been Lionel to succeed than
Frederick," spoke the former, honestly, some faint idea that people
might think she was pleased suggesting the avowal to her. "Lionel has
more right than Fred to Verner's Pride."

"More right!" ejaculated Dr. West warmly. "Frederick Massingbird has
_no_ right, by the side of Lionel Verner. Why Mr. Verner ever willed it
away from Lionel we could not understand."

"Fred needn't take it--even if the codicil can't be found--he can give
it back to Lionel by deed of gift," said practical Jan. "_I_ should."

"That my master meant Mr. Lionel to succeed, is certain," interposed
Tynn, the butler. "Nearly the last word he said to me, before the breath
went out of his body, was an injunction to serve Mr. Lionel faithfully
at Verner's Pride, as I had served him. There can be no difficulty in
Mr. Lionel's succeeding, when my master's intentions were made so
plain."

"Be quiet, Tynn," said Lionel. "I succeed by means of legal right to
Verner's Pride, or I will not succeed at all."

"That's true," acquiesced the lawyer. "A will is a will, and must be
acted upon. How on earth has that codicil got spirited away?"

How indeed! But for the plain fact, so positive and palpable before
them, of the codicil's absence, they would have declared the loss to be
an impossibility. Upstairs and down, the house was vainly searched for
it; and the conclusion was at length unwillingly come to that Mr. Verner
had repented of his bequest, had taken the codicil out of the desk, and
burned it. The suggestion came from Mr. Bitterworth; and Mrs. Tynn
acknowledged that it was just possible Mr. Verner's strength would allow
him to accomplish so much, while her back was turned. And y