s own mind.

"I know, I know," he presently said, in answer. "The worry, the
uncertainty, as to what I ought to do, has destroyed the peace of my
later days. I altered my will when smarting under the discovery of his
unworthiness; but, even then a doubt as to whether I was doing right
caused me to name him as inheritor, should the Massingbirds die."

"Why, that must have been a paradox!" exclaimed Mr. Bitterworth. "Lionel
Verner should inherit before all, or not inherit at all. What your
ground of complaint against him is, I know not; but whatever it may be,
it can be no excuse for your willing away from him Verner's Pride. Some
youthful folly of his came to your knowledge, I conclude."

"Not folly. Call it sin--call it crime," vehemently replied Mr. Verner.

"As you please; you know its proper term better than I. For one solitary
instance of--what you please to name it--you should not blight his whole
prospects for life. Lionel's general conduct is so irreproachable
(unless he be the craftiest hypocrite under the sun) that you may well
pardon one defalcation. Are you sure you were not mistaken?"

"I am sure. I hold proof positive."

"Well, I leave that. I say that you might forgive him, whatever it may
be, remembering how few his offences are. He would make a faithful
master of Verner's Pride. Compare him to Fred Massingbird! Pshaw!"

Mr. Verner did not answer. His face had an aching look upon it, as it
leaned out over the top of his stick. Mr. Bitterworth laid his hand upon
his friend's knee persuasively.

"Do not go out of the world committing an act of injustice; an act, too,
that is irreparable, and of which the injustice must last for ever.
Stephen, I will not leave you until you consent to repair what you have
done."

"It has been upon my mind to do it since I was taken worse yesterday,"
murmured Stephen Verner. "Our Saviour taught us to forgive. Had it been
against me only that he sinned, I would have forgiven him long ago."

"You will forgive him now?"

"Forgiveness does not lie with me. It was not against me, I say, that he
sinned. Let him ask forgiveness of God and of his own conscience. But he
shall have Verner's Pride."

"Better that you should see it in its proper light at the eleventh hour,
than not at all, Stephen," said Mr. Bitterworth. "By every law of right
and justice, Verner's Pride, after you, belongs to Lionel."

"You speak well, Bitterworth, when you call it the eleventh hour,"
obs