"What was that about a codicil?" she suddenly asked him. "When my aunt wrote to me upon Mr. Verner's death, she said that a codicil had been lost: or that, otherwise, the estate would have been yours."
Lionel explained it to her, concealing nothing.
"Then—if that codicil had been forthcoming, Frederick's share would have been but five hundred pounds?"
"That is all."
"It was very little to leave him," she musingly rejoined.
"And still less to leave me, considering my nearer relationship—my nearer claims. When the codicil could not be found, the will had to be acted upon: and five hundred pounds was all the sum it gave me."
"Has the codicil never been found?"
"Never."
"How very strange! What became of it, do you think?"
"I wish I could think what," replied Lionel. "Although Verner's Pride has come to me without it, it would be satisfactory to solve the mystery."