It would be tedious and unprofitable to follow our two antiquarians, as we may for the present consider them, in their further researches that day. It will suffice to say that they returned to their late dinner at the George—Mr. Foster rather disgusted with the general stolidity of the inhabitants of Saddlebrook, the more so that his inquiries had hitherto produced no palpable result; and John Tincroft thinking he should be much happier with another companion, and wondering how they got on at High Beech Farm without him.
The next morning a new light entered the mind of the lawyer's clerk. This Elizabeth Foold, whose name figured as a nurse on the certificate, and of whom no trace or track could yet be discovered—might she not be heard of in the religious community or congregation with which her then employers had been connected? What more natural than that the heads of a Dissenting household should engage the services of a Dissenting nurse? Now, as we have explained, there were two Dissenting chapels in Saddlebrook: one of these, Foster had learned, was the meeting-house of a congregation of the Presbyterian body; the other belonged to the Baptists.
"We'll go and find out the minister of that chapel, to begin with," quoth Mr. Foster, as he and Tincroft sat together at breakfast.
"Should you mind going alone?" asked John, timidly, with an undefinable dread, perhaps, of coming into personal contact with a live sectarian.
"Oh, that wouldn't do. We must go together, of course. You are my principal, you know, sir; and you have to see that I do my duty by you."
No further opposition being offered, and the address of the minister being easily obtained, the two gentlemen from London, as they were supposed to be, presently proceeded to his house. They found him at home, and were shown into his study—a quiet back room of moderate dimensions, well furnished with book-shelves, and looking out upon a cheerful garden.
After a short delay, the minister appeared, and very much, probably, to the surprise of John Tincroft, who examined him, with his eyes, narrowly from head to foot, he was so much like a gentleman, that John concluded he must be one, in spite of his being a Dissenter. He was a young man, somewhat to the disappointment of Mr. Foster, who opened the business, however, and was attentively listened to.
"Of course," he said, "I can have no personal remembrance of the persons you name; but possibly the records of our church—"
("Church, too!" thought John within himself. "He calls his meeting-house a church, does he! Rather strong that, I think.")
"May contain some information on the subject. Our church-book dates back at its commencement more than a hundred years. And I have it by me. And also my friend, the senior deacon of our church, may be able to tell us something. He has been a member more than fifty years. I will send and ask him to step in. He lives not far-off."