Tynn herself had lifted out the stack of shirts. She had
assured those who were searching that there was no need to do so, for
the drawer had been locked up at the time the codicil was made, and the
deed could not have been put into it. They accepted her assurance, and
did not look between the shirts. It puzzled Mrs. Tynn, now, to think how
it could have got in.

"I'll not tell Tynn," she soliloquised--she and Tynn being somewhat
inclined to take opposite sides of a question, in social
intercourse--"and I'll not say a word to my mistress. I'll go straight
off now and give it into the hands of Mr. Lionel. What a blessed
thing!--If he should be come into his own!"

The inclosed paved court before Lady Verner's residence had a broad
flower-bed round it. It was private from the outer world, save for the
iron gates, and here Decima and Lucy Tempest were fond of lingering on a
fine day. On this afternoon of Mary Tynn's discovery, they were there
with Lionel. Decima went indoors for some string to tie up a fuchsia
plant, just as Tynn appeared at the iron gates. She stopped on seeing
Lionel.

"I was going round to the other entrance, sir, to ask to speak to you,"
she said. "Something very strange has happened."

"Come in," answered Lionel. "Will you speak here, or go indoors? What is
it?"

Too excitedly eager to wait to go indoors, or to care for the presence
of Lucy Tempest, Mrs. Tynn told her tale, and handed the paper to
Lionel. "It's the missing codicil, as sure as that we are here, sir."

He saw the official-looking nature of the document, its great seal, and
the superscription in his uncle's handwriting. Lionel did not doubt that
it was the codicil, and a streak of scarlet emotion arose to his pale
cheek.

"You don't open it, sir!" said the woman, as feverishly impatient as if
the good fortune were her own.

No. Lionel did not open it. In his high honour, he deemed that, before
opening, it should be laid before Mrs. Verner. It had been found in her
house; it concerned her son. "I think it will be better that Mrs.
Verner should open this, Tynn," he quietly said.

"You won't get me into a mess, sir, for bringing it out to you first?"

Lionel turned his honest eyes upon her, smiling then. "Can't you trust
me better than that? You have known me long enough."

"So I have, Mr. Lionel. The mystery is, how it could ever have got into
that shirt-drawer!" she continued. "I can declare that for a good week
before my m