pricious man.'

"It is impossible that my uncle could have cast a shade of suspicion on
me, in regard to that affair," said Lionel. "He knew me better. At the
moment of its occurrence, when nobody could tell whom to suspect, I
remember a word or two were dropped which caused me to assure him _I_
was not the guilty party, and he stopped me. He would not allow me even
to speak of defence; he said he cast no suspicion on me."

"Well, it is a great mystery," said Mr. Bitterworth. "You must excuse
me, Lionel. I thought Mr. Verner might in some way have taken up the
notion. Evil tales, which have no human foundation, are sometimes palmed
upon credulous ears for fact, and do their work."

"Were it as you suggest, my uncle would have spoken to me, had it been
only to reproach," said Lionel. "It is a mystery, certainly, as you
observe; but that is nothing to this mystery of the disappearance of the
codicil----"

"I am going, Lionel," interrupted Jan, putting his head round the room
door.

"I must go, too," said Lionel, starting from the sideboard against which
he had been leaning. "My mother must hear of this business from no one
but me."

Verner's Pride emptied itself of its mourners, who betook themselves
their respective ways. Lionel, taking the long crape from his hat, and
leaving on its deep mourning band alone, walked with a quick step
through the village. He would not have _chosen_ to be abroad that day,
walking the very route where he had just figured chief in the
procession, but to go without delay to Lady Verner was a duty. And a
duty was never willingly omitted by Lionel Verner.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE REVELATION TO LADY VERNER.

IN the drawing-room at Deerham Court, in their new black dresses, sat
Lady Verner and Decima; Lucy Tempest with them. Lady Verner held out her
hand to Lionel when he entered, and lifted her face, a strange eagerness
visible in its refinement.

"I thought you would come to me, Lionel!" she uttered. "I want to know a
hundred things.--Decima, have the goodness to direct your reproachful
looks elsewhere; not to me. Why should I be a hypocrite, and feign a
sorrow for Stephen Verner which I do not feel? I know it is his
burial-day as well as you know it; but I will not make that a reason for
abstaining from questions on family topics, although they do relate to
money and means that were once his. I say it would be hypocritical
affectation to do so. Lionel," she deliberately continue