"Possible and certain!" answered Tyrrel. "My father, shortly preceding his death, sent me--with a most affecting confession of his errors--this list of papers, and acquainted me that he had made a similar communication to your friend. That he did so I have no doubt, however Mr. Bulmer may have thought proper to disguise the circumstance in communication with you. One circumstance, among others, stamps at once his character, and confirms me of the danger he apprehended by my return to Britain. He found means, through a scoundrelly agent, who had made me the usual remittances from my father while alive, to withhold those which were necessary for my return from the Levant, and I was obliged to borrow from a friend." "Indeed?" replied Jekyl. "It is the first time I have heard of these papers--May I enquire where the originals are, and in whose custody?" "I was in the East," answered Tyrrel, "during my father's last illness, and these papers were by him deposited with a respectable commercial house, with which he was connected. They were enclosed in a cover directed to me, and that again in an envelope, addressed to the principal person in their firm." "You must be sensible," said Captain Jekyl, "that I can scarcely decide on the extraordinary offer which you have been pleased to make, of resigning the claim founded on these documents, unless I had a previous opportunity of examining them." "You shall have that opportunity--I will write to have them sent down by the post--they lie but in small compass." "This, then," said the Captain, "sums up all that can be said at present.--Supposing these proofs to be of unexceptionable authenticity, I certainly would advise my friend Etherington to put to sleep a claim so important as yours, even at the expense of resigning his matrimonial speculation--I presume you design to abide by your offer?" "I am not in the habit of altering my mind--still less of retracting my word," said Tyrrel, somewhat haughtily. "We part friends, I hope?" said Jekyl, rising, and taking his leave. "Not enemies certainly, Captain Jekyl. I will own to you I owe you my thanks, for extricating me from that foolish affair at the Well--nothing could have put me to more inconvenience than the necessity of following to extremity a frivolous quarrel at the present moment." "You will come down among us, then?" said Jekyl. "I certainly shall not wish to appear to hide myself," answered Tyrrel; "it is a circumstance might be turned against me--there is a party who will avail himself of every advantage. I have but one path, Captain Jekyl--that of truth and honour." Captain Jekyl bowed, and took his leave. So soon as he was gone, Tyrrel locked the door of the apartment, and drawing from his bosom a portrait, gazed on it with a mixture of sorrow and tenderness, until the tears dropped from his eye.