CHAPTER XVIII.
PERPLEXITY.
It was a terrible blow; there was no doubt of that; very terrible to Lionel Verner, so proud and sensitive.

Do not take the word proud in its wrong meaning.

He did not set himself up for being better than others, or think everybody else dirt beneath his feet; but he was proud of his independence, of his unstained name--he was proud to own that fine place, Verner's Pride.

And now Verner's Pride was dashed from him, and his independence seemed to have gone out with the blow, and a slight seemed to have fallen upon him, if not upon his name.
He had surely counted upon Verner's Pride.

He had believed himself as indisputably its heir, as though he had been Stephen Verner's eldest son, and the estate entailed.