Mytton eagerly snatched the bag from her arm, and emptied its contents on the table; turning-the bag inside out, to make sure that no scrap should escape his notice. He turned over the soiled printed leaves with evident disappointment.
"Only bits of an old Bible, no use at all," he muttered.
"I beg your pardon, my good man," said Mr. Garway; "it by no means follows that an old family Bible, of which these leaves appear to have formed a part, should be of no use to us in our search. Many persons keep family records of births and marriages in the blank page of their Bibles, and if this—"
"Ha! Look here!" interrupted Mr. Sharp, catching up a yellow three-cornered morsel of paper with writing upon it, which had got mixed up with the printed portions. "Here is '—ried June 1, 1714,' doubtless this is part of an old record of marriage."
"If we could only discover the rest of the page from which that was torn," cried Mr. Garway. "I should not wonder if we found that we had got hold of the right clue at last."
Diligent search was made amongst the papers which May had put into her bag, but not another scrap could be found to match that three-cornered bit. The whole cottage—upstairs and downstairs—was searched;—the shed, the yard, the dust-hole, the hen-coop, every likely and unlikely spot was hunted over for paper, and papers were found, but the lawyers, after examination, shook their heads at them all.
The Mytton family were in a state of violent excitement, all except one pallid girl who sat by the window, almost unnoticed, because too feeble to join in the search. The extreme anxiety to find a page taken from a family Bible, a page which might possibly help to prove a right to an earthly inheritance, sadly contrasted with the utter indifference felt as regarded the heavenly inheritance to which God's Word skews the believer's claim. But that indifference was not shared by Amy: the scene of bustle around her suggested holy thoughts to her mind. While Silas and the lawyers were eagerly peering over fragments of papers brought by the younger Myttons, the words of a hymn, like soft, low, music, were breathing peace into Amy's soul.
"When I can read my title clear
To mansions in the skies,
I'll bid farewell to every fear.
And wipe my weeping eyes."
[CHAPTER IV.]
Earthly Hope.