Lady Verner caught at the codicil, as a drowning man catches at a straw.
"How could you terrify me ?" she asked.

"Verner's Pride is yours, Lionel.
The codicil must be found." "The conviction upon my mind is that it never will be found," he resolutely answered.

"Whoever took that codicil from the desk where it was placed, could have had but one motive in doing it--the depriving me of Verner's Pride.

Rely upon it, it is effectually removed ere this, by burning, or otherwise.No.I already look upon the codicil as a thing that never existed.

Verner's Pride is gone from us." "But, Lionel, whom do you suspect?
Who can have taken it?
It is pretty nearly a hanging matter to steal a will!" "I do not suspect any one," he emphatically answered.