in an
iron safe?' If I've heard him say that once, I've heard him say it a
hundred times. He was the solicitor in those days, sir, who had the
appointment of vestry-clerk to this church. A fine hearty old
gentleman, and the most particular man breathing. As long as he lived
he kept a copy of this book in his office at Knowlesbury, and had it
posted up regular, from time to time, to correspond with the fresh
entries here. You would hardly think it, but he had his own appointed
days, once or twice in every quarter, for riding over to this church on
his old white pony, to check the copy, by the register, with his own
eyes and hands. 'How do I know?' (he used to say) 'how do I know that
the register in this vestry may not be stolen or destroyed? Why isn't
it kept in an iron safe? Why can't I make other people as careful as I
am myself? Some of these days there will be an accident happen, and
when the register's lost, then the parish will find out the value of my
copy.' He used to take his pinch of snuff after that, and look about
him as bold as a lord. Ah! the like of him for doing business isn't
easy to find now. You may go to London and not match him, even THERE.
Which year did you say, sir? Eighteen hundred and what?"

"Eighteen hundred and four," I replied, mentally resolving to give the
old man no more opportunities of talking, until my examination of the
register was over.

The clerk put on his spectacles, and turned over the leaves of the
register, carefully wetting his finger and thumb at every third page.
"There it is, sir," said he, with another cheerful smack on the open
volume. "There's the year you want."

As I was ignorant of the month in which Sir Percival was born, I began
my backward search with the early part of the year. The register-book
was of the old-fashioned kind, the entries being all made on blank
pages in manuscript, and the divisions which separated them being
indicated by ink lines drawn across the page at the close of each entry.

I reached the beginning of the year eighteen hundred and four without
encountering the marriage, and then travelled back through December
eighteen hundred and three--through November and October--through----

No! not through September also. Under the heading of that month in the
year I found the marriage.

I looked carefully at the entry. It was at the bottom of a page, and
was for want of room compressed into a smaller space than that occupied
by th