"I may have no claims to your honours 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.