On the third day Tramplara did not come at all, but Trecarrel heard through the hostess that young Sampson had been there to inquire whether he was still confined to his bed. On the fourth day the old man came, very sulky and rude, and gave way—not to the first alternative, but to the second. Herring was sent for, and the transaction was arranged to the satisfaction of the Captain. ’Now then,’ said Trecarrel, ’my indisposition is better. Ring for shaving water. Clear every one out of the room. I am going to rise.’ *CHAPTER XXVI.* *THE SHEKEL.* ’Miss Cicely,’ said John Herring. ’Yes, Mr. John,’ answered Cicely, with a smile. ’Well—Cicely—if you wish it.’ ’I do wish it; I dislike formality. You have stayed with us so long, and have been so good to us, and helped us so greatly, that I suspect a cousinship between us, if the respective Battishill and Herring pedigrees were worked. The West of England families are all united by marriage.’ ’My family boasts of no dignity or antiquity,’ said Herring. ’We have been humble yeomen down to my father, and never dreamed of calling ourselves gentlemen, certainly not of tacking an esquire after our names.’ ’If your ancestors were humble yeomen, ours were very humble gentlemen. Do look at West Wyke. Did you ever see a gentleman’s house elsewhere so small, and yet so full of self-consciousness? An embattled gateway in a wall that a boy could overleap, guarding a garden of hollyhocks. A front door with a huge beam to close it, running back into the wall, to protect the family plate, which consists of one silver caudle cup, and a whalebone-handled punch-ladle with a Queen Anne’s shilling in the bowl. I believe our family stood barely above high water mark, the line where the yeoman ended and the gentleman began; but so barely above it, that we were always liable to be submerged, and never able to lift ourselves wholly into a more exalted and secure position.’ ’I dare say,’ observed John Herring, ’that the smallness of your house has been the salvation of your family. You have not been expected to keep a large establishment; to entertain much, and to have a stable and furniture and a cellar.’ ’I dare say you are right. By the way, how is the sick gentleman at the Oxenham Arms?’ ’There is not much change in his condition. He is still indisposed.’ ’Who is he?’ ’A Cornish squire, Trecarrel by name, who is engaged to the daughter of Mr. Trampleasure.’ ’No doubt Miss Mirelle will have had some of her airs taken out of her in the Trampleasure household.’