about three o'clock in the afternoon
It mattered little to him to know the antecedents of Marian 's father , while Marian 's destiny remained still hidden from him . On the following day Gilbert Fenton took his second advertisement to the office in Printing House Square ; an advertisement offering a reward of twenty pounds for any reliable information as to the marriage of Marian Nowell . A week went by , during which the advertisement appeared on alternate days ; and at the end of that time there came a letter from the parish-clerk of Wygrove , a small town about forty miles farther from London than Lidford , stating that , on the 14th of March , John Holbrook and Marian Nowell had been married at the church in that place . Gilbert Fenton left London by an early train upon the morning after his receipt of this letter ; and at about three o'clock in the afternoon found himself on the outskirts of Wygrove , rather a difficult place to reach , involving a good deal of delay at out-of-the-way junctions , and a six-mile journey by stage-coach from the nearest station . It was about the dullest dreariest little town to which his destiny had ever brought Gilbert Fenton , consisting of a melancholy high-street , with a blank market-place , and a town hall that looked as if it had not been opened within the memory of man ; a grand old gothic church , much too large for the requirements of the place ; a grim square brick box inscribed `` Ebenezer ; '' and a few prim villas straggling off into the country . On one side of the church there was a curious little old-fashioned court , wonderfully neat and clean , with houses the parlours whereof were sunk below the level of the pavement , after the manner of these old places . There was a great show of geraniums in the casements , and a general aspect of brightness and order distinguished all these modest dwellings .