"Ay, it is that; nothing else!" wailed Mr. Verner, "nothing else, nothing else! Has it not been enough to disturb me?" he added, putting the question in a loud, quick accent. "Setting aside my love for Lionel, which was great, setting aside my finding him unworthy, it has been a bitter trial to me to leave Verner's Pride to a Massingbird. I have never loved the Massingbirds," he continued, dropping his voice to a whisper. "If Lionel _were_ unworthy,"--with a stress upon the "were,"--"you might have left it to Jan," spoke Mr. Bitterworth. "Lady Verner has thrown too much estrangement between Jan and me. No. I would rather even a Massingbird had it than Jan." "If Lionel were unworthy, I said," resumed Mr. Bitterworth. "I cannot believe he is. How has he proved himself so? What has he done?" Mr. Verner put up his hands as if to ward off some imaginary phantom, and his pale face turned of a leaden hue. "Never ask me," he whispered. "I cannot tell you. I have had to bear it about with me," he continued, with an irrepressible burst of anguish; "to bear it here, within me, in silence; never breathing a word of my knowledge to him, or to any one." "Some folly must have come to your cognisance," observed Mr. Bitterworth; "though I had deemed Lionel Verner to be more free from the sins of hot-blooded youth than are most men. I have believed him to be a true gentleman in the best sense of the word--a good and honourable man." "A silent stream runs deep," remarked Mr. Verner. Mr. Bitterworth drew his chair nearer to his friend, and, bending towards him, resumed solemnly-- "Verner's Pride of right (speaking in accordance with our national notions) belonged to your brother, Sir Lionel. It would have been his, as you know, had he lived but a month or two longer; your father would not have willed it away from him. After him it would have been Lionel's. Sir Lionel died too soon, and it was left to you; but what injunction from your father accompanied it? Forgive my asking you the question, Stephen." "Do you think I have forgotten it?" wailed Mr. Verner. "It has cost me my peace--my happiness, to will it away from Lionel. To see Verner's Pride in possession of any but a Verner will trouble me so--if, indeed, we are permitted in the next world still to mark what goes on in this--that I shall scarcely rest quiet in my grave." "You have no more--I must speak plainly, Stephen--I believe that you have no more right in equity to will away the estate from Lionel, than you would have were he the heir-at-law. Many have said--I am sure you must be aware that they have--that you have kept him out of it; that you have enjoyed what ought to have been his, ever since his grandfather's death." "Have _you_ said it?" angrily asked Mr. Verner.