rs or money; but this ring I need not be ashamed to wear,
since it was bestowed on one who was as much _my_ ancestor, as he was
the ancestor of any Wychecombe in England."

"Legitimate?" cried Tom, a fierce feeling of resentment upsetting his
caution and cunning.

"Yes, sir, _legitimate_," answered Wycherly, turning to his
interrogator, with the calmness of one conscious of his own truth, and
with a glance of the eye that caused Tom to shrink back again into the
circle. "I need no _bar_, to enable me to use this seal, which, you may
perceive, Sir Gervaise Oakes, is a _fac simile_ of the one I ordinarily
wear, and which was transmitted to me from my direct ancestors."

The vice-admiral compared the seal on Wycherly's watch-chain with that
on the ring, and, the bearings being principally griffins, he was
enabled to see that one was the exact counterpart of the other. Sir
Reginald advanced a step, and when the admiral had satisfied himself, he
also took the two seals and compared them. As all the known branches of
the Wychecombes of Wychecombe, bore the same arms, viz., griffins for
Wychecombe, with three battering-rams quartered, for Wycherly,--he saw,
at once, that the young man habitually carried about his person, this
proof of a common origin. Sir Reginald knew very well that arms were
often assumed, as well as names, and the greater the obscurity of the
individual who took these liberties, the greater was his impunity; but
the seal was a very ancient one, and innovations on personal rights were
far less frequent a century since, than they are to-day. Then the
character and appearance of Wycherly put fraud out of the question, so
far as the young lieutenant himself was concerned. Although the elder
branch of the family, legitimately speaking, was reduced to the helpless
old man who was now stretched upon his death-bed, his own had been
extensive; and it well might be that some cadet of the Wychecombes of
Wychecombe-Regis, had strayed into the colonies and left descendants.
Secretly resolving to look more closely into these facts, he gravely
returned the seals, and intimated to Sir Gervaise that the more
important business before them had better proceed. On this hint, Atwood
resumed the pen, and the vice-admiral his duties.

"There want yet some 6 or L7000 to make up L20,000, Sir Wycherly, which
I understand is the sum you have in the funds. Whose name or names will
you have next inserted?"

"Rotherham--vicar--poor