y. And still less likely, that he
would have addressed me as his successor in dying, and given me charges
as to the management of the estate, had he left it away from me."

"No, no; no, no!" emphatically returned Lady Verner. "That codicil has
been _stolen_, Lionel."

"But, by whom?" he debated. "There's not a servant in the house would do
it; and there was no other inmate of it, save myself. This is my chief
difficulty. Were it not for the total absence of all other suspicion, I
should not for a moment entertain the thought that it could have been
my uncle. Let us leave the subject, mother. It seems to be an
unprofitable one, and my head is weary."

"Are you going to give the codicil tamely up for a bad job, without
further search?" asked Lady Verner. "That I should live--that I should
_live_ to see Sibylla West's children inherit Verner's Pride!" she
passionately added.

Sibylla West's children! Lionel had enough pain at his heart, just then,
without that shaft. A piercing shaft truly, and it dyed his brow fiery
red.

"We have searched already in every likely or possible place that we can
think of; to-morrow morning, places unlikely and impossible will be
searched," he said, in answer to his mother's question. "I shall be
aided by the police; our searching is nothing compared with what they
can do. They go about it artistically, perfected by practice."

"And--if the result should be a failure?"

"It will be a failure," spoke Lionel, in his firm conviction. "In which
case I bid adieu to Verner's Pride."

"And come home here; will you not, Lionel?"

"For the present. And now, mother, that I have told you the ill news,
and spoiled your rest, I must go back again."

Spoiled her rest! Ay, for many a day and night to come. Lionel
disinherited! Verner's Pride gone from them for ever! A cry went forth
from Lady Verner's heart. It had been the moment of hope which she had
looked forward to for years; and, now that it was come, what had it
brought?

"My own troubles make me selfish," said Lionel, turning back when he was
half out at the door. "I forgot to tell you that Jan and Decima inherit
five hundred pounds each."

"Five hundred pounds!" slightingly returned Lady Verner. "It is but of
at piece with the rest."

He did not add that he had five hundred also, failing the estate. It
would have seemed worse mockery still.

Looking out at the door, opposite to the ante-room, on the other side of
the hall, was De