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"Don't say, 'if we can come across it, Matiss." "Very good, Mr. Bitterworth. I'm sure I should be glad to see it found. Where else are we to look?" Where else, indeed! That Mr. Verner could not get out of the room to hide the codicil was an indisputable fact; and nobody else seemed to know anything whatever about it.
Bitterworth, and one or two more influential people, of whom Lionel was one, had very strongly objected to Brother Jarrum's presence in it at all; and, again, this may have been the reason of his quitting it. However it was, he did quit it; though not without establishing a secret understanding with the more faithful of his converts.
The Elmsleys and the half-starved Hooks; the Hautleys and those ill-doing Dawsons; the Misses West and their pupils; Lady Verner and the Frosts; Mr. Bitterworth in a hand-chair, his gouty foot swathed up in linen; Mrs. Duff, who had shut up her shop to come; Dan, in some new clothes; Mr. Peckaby and lady; Chuff the blacksmith, with rather a rolling gait; and Master Cheese and Jan.
Bitterworth, a broad smile upon his face. "Couldn't have been a woman's, sir; 'twas too tall," was the sobbing answer. "A great tall thing it looked, like a white shadder. I wonder I be alive!" "So do I," irascibly cried Mr. Verner. "Which way was it going? Towards the village, or in this direction?" "Not in either of 'em, sir. It glided right off at a angle amid the trees."
"Strictly speaking, the estate is not bequeathed to Frederick Massingbird; he will inherit it in consequence of John's death," quietly went on Mr. Verner. "It is left to John Massingbird, and to Frederick after him, should he be the survivor. Failing them both " "And I am still executor?" interrupted Mr. Bitterworth, in a tone raised rather above the orthodox key for a sick-room.
"Then were John Massingbird alive, he could not now succeed to the estate!" cried Sir Rufus. "He could not, Sir Rufus," replied the lawyer. "He would be debarred from all benefit under Mr. Verner's will. That is, provided we can come across the codicil. Failing that, he would succeed were he in life, to Verner's Pride." "The codicil must be found," cried Mr. Bitterworth, getting heated.
Bitterworth nodded again. "I called in upon him this morning, and in the course of conversation it came out what he had done about Verner's Pride. And now he wants it undone." "I am glad of it I am glad of it, Mr. Bitterworth. Between ourselves though I mean no disrespect to them the young Massingbirds were not fit heirs for Verner's Pride. Mr. Lionel Verner is."
There may not be accommodation for him at Lady Verner's?" "There's accommodation enough for that," said Jan. "They have plenty of room, and old Catherine can make him up a bed." Lady Verner and Lucy were out. They had not returned from the call on Mrs. Bitterworth for it was the afternoon spoken of in the last chapter.
Though Catherine's hand is painful, she can do something." "Oh, yes, we shall manage very well," cheerfully answered Lucy. "Did you say we should have to go out, Lady Verner?" "This afternoon. For one place, we must go to the Bitterworths. You cannot go away without seeing them, and Mrs. Bitterworth is too ill just now to call upon you. I wonder whether Lionel will be here to-day?"
But that some very great anxiety was racking him might be seen by the most casual observer. It had been racking him for a long time past, and it was growing worse now. And it appeared to be what he could not, or would not, speak of. The news of the dangerous change in the master of Verner's Pride circulated through the vicinity, and it brought forth, amidst other of his friends, Mr. Bitterworth.
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