During the rest of the evening she asked the boy a good many questions about his work in Soper Lane, and the ways of the household, but there seemed no fault to be found with anything, though doubtless the household was ruled strictly, as most Puritan homes were. Still, what Sim had told her about Westland made her uncomfortable, and before she went to bed she decided to go to the vicarage the next morning as soon as Sim had started to Soper Lane, and doubtless the parson or Dame Lowe would be able to explain everything, and set her fears at rest.
But when she went, she heard from the maid-servant that the vicar was ill in bed with a bad cold, and that she would have to wait a little while to see her mistress.
"Then I will wait," said the widow, for she had scarcely been able to sleep for thinking of the peril to which her boy might be exposed if it should be true that his master was a Quaker, as he suspected. Dame Lowe would be able to set her fears at rest, she hoped, and the moment the lady entered the room the widow began a recital of her trouble.
At first she was too full of what she had to say, and how frightened she had become, to pay much attention to the lady herself, but after a minute or two she noticed that she was trembling, and her face had become as white as the lace ruffle she wore round her neck.
"I—I am afraid you are ill, madam," said the widow, stopping short in her recital, and looking hard at the lady.
"Just a little faint. I have been anxious about the vicar, you see—but go on with your story. What did your boy say was the name of these children?"
The lady spoke eagerly, and looked almost as frightened and anxious as her visitor, though she was careful not to let her know that it arose from the same cause, and spoke of the vicar's illness as being a little alarming, and having upset her.
"But tell me about those children who have gone to live at the house in Soper Lane. Who did you say they were?"
"Well, now, Sim couldn't be quite sure, of course; but he is a careful lad, and he says there was a Quaker of the same name had his ears cut off for heresy only a day or two ago. Of course, I told Sim that his master, being a godly and charitable man, might have had compassion on these witless children without being himself a Quaker."
"Then it is suspected that Dame Drayton and her husband are both Quakers. Is that what you mean, Tompkins?"