; therefore it cannot be mine. Neither would he
resign it."

"I wonder whether it could be done by stratagem?" mused Dr. West. "Could
we persuade him that the codicil has turned up?--or something of that?
It would be very desirable for Sibylla."

"If I go back to Verner's Pride at all, sir, I go back by _right_;
neither by purchase nor by stratagem," was the reply of Lionel. "Rely
upon it, things set about in an underhand manner never prosper."

"I might get John Massingbird to give it up to you," continued the
doctor, nodding his head thoughtfully, as if he had some scheme afloat
in it. "I might get him to resign it to you, rents and residence and
all, and betake himself off. You would give me a per centage?"

"Were John Massingbird to offer such to me to-morrow, of his own free
will, I should decline it," decisively returned Lionel. "I have suffered
too much from Verner's Pride ever to take possession of it again, except
by indisputable right--a right in which I cannot be disturbed. Twice
have I been turned from it, as you know. And the turning out has cost me
more than the world deemed."

"But surely you would go back to it if you could, for Sibylla's sake?"

"Were I a rich man, able to rent Verner's Pride from John Massingbird, I
might ask him to let it me, if it would gratify Sibylla. But, to return
there as its master, on sufferance, liable to be expelled again at any
moment--never! John Massingbird holds the right to Verner's Pride, and
he will exercise it, for me."

"Then you will not accept my offer--to try and get you back again; and
to make me a substantial honorarium if I do it?"

"I do not understand you, Dr. West. The question cannot arise."

"If I make it arise; and carry it out?"

"I beg your pardon--No."

It was an emphatic denial, and Dr. West may have felt himself foiled; as
he had been foiled by Jan's confession of empty pockets, earlier in the
evening.

"Nevertheless," observed he equably, as he shook hands with Lionel,
before entering his own house, "I shall see John Massingbird to-morrow,
and urge the hardship of the case upon him."

It was probably with that view that Dr. West proceeded early on the
following morning to Verner's Pride, after his night of search, instead
of sleep, astonishing John Massingbird not a little. That gentleman was
enjoying himself in a comfortable sort of way in his bedroom. A
substantial breakfast was laid out on a table by the bedside, while he,
not ri