"I am shocked-- excessively shocked! Your father would have been very glad to have left his ring to Martin, let me tell you, only he thought it not right to leave it away from the heir!" "Was it indeed a personal bequest?" inquired Gervase, interested. "That certainly must be held to enhance its value. It becomes, in fact, a curio, for it must be quite the only piece of unentailed property which my father did bequeathe to me. I shall put it in a glass cabinet." Martin, reddening, said: "I see what you are at! I'm not to be blamed if my father preferred me to you!" "No, you are to be felicitated," said Gervase."