ng her. He could have found in his heart to take her in his arms,
and warm her there.

"What was that about a codicil?" she suddenly asked him. "When my aunt
wrote to me upon Mr. Verner's death, she said that a codicil had been
lost: or that, otherwise, the estate would have been yours."

Lionel explained it to her, concealing nothing.

"Then--if that codicil had been forthcoming, Frederick's share would
have been but five hundred pounds?"

"That is all."

"It was very little to leave him," she musingly rejoined.

"And still less to leave me, considering my nearer relationship--my
nearer claims. When the codicil could not be found, the will had to be
acted upon: and five hundred pounds was all the sum it gave me."

"Has the codicil never been found?"

"Never."

"How very strange! What became of it, do you think?"

"I wish I could think what," replied Lionel. "Although Verner's Pride
has come to me without it, it would be satisfactory to solve the
mystery."

Sibylla looked round cautiously, and sunk her voice. "Could Tynn or his
wife have done anything with it? You say they were present when it was
signed."

"Most decidedly they did not. Both of them were anxious that I should
succeed."

"It is so strange! To lock a paper up in a desk, and for it to disappear
of its own accord! The moths could not have got in and eaten it?"

"Scarcely," smiled Lionel. "The day before your aunt died, she----"

"Don't talk of that," interrupted Mrs. Massingbird. "I will hear about
her death to-morrow. I shall be ill if I cry much to-night."

She sank into silence, and Lionel did not interrupt it. It continued,
until his quick ears caught the sound of the groom's return. The man
rode his horse round to the stables at once. Presently Tynn came in with
a note. It was from Lady Verner. A few lines, written hastily with a
pencil:--

"I do not understand your request, Lionel, or why you make it. Whatever
may be my opinion of Frederick Massingbird's widow, I will not insult
her sense of propriety by supposing that she would attempt to remain at
Verner's Pride now her aunt is dead. It is absurd of you to ask me to
come; neither shall I send Decima. Were I and Decima residing with you,
it would not be the place for Sibylla Massingbird. She has her own home
to go to."

There was no signature. Lionel knew his mother's handwriting too well to
require the addition. It was just the note that he might have expected
her to write.