With an eager, yet trembling hand (for I was in such a state of
agitation that I could scarcely write), I snatched a pen, and hastily
scrawled the following words:--

"Clara, will you--can you forgive me? It is of the utmost importance
that I should see you and speak to you without delay, if but for five
minutes; strange and unexpected things have come to light, and it is
necessary for your happiness, nay, even for your very safety, that you
should be made acquainted with them. Clara, dearest Clara, grant me
this boon, if not for my sake, for your own; if you knew the misery, the
agony of mind I have endured for the last two days, I think you would
pity, would pardon me.

"F. F."

"There," said I, as I hastily sealed it, "I have done all I can, and if
she will not see me, I shall be ready to go and blow Wilford's brains
out first, and my own afterwards. So, my good Peter, be off at once, for
every moment seems an hour till I learn her decision."

"Wait a bit, sir,--wait a bit; you haven't heard my plan yet. You can't
set your foot in the park, for there's the keeper and two assistants
on the look out; and if you could, you dare not show your nose in the
house, for there's Muster Richard with his lovely black hyes a-setting
in the liberary, and he's got ears like an 'are, besides two or three of
the servants as would tell him in a minute. No, this is the way I means
to manage--Miss Clara generally rides a-horseback every day, and I rides
behind her; and before I came out, I ordered the horses as usual. So, if
she's willing to come, we'll go out at the back gate by the great oak,
a quarter of a mile farther down this lane, and when we've got out of
sight of the park paling, you've nothing to do but set spurs to your
horse, and join us;--therefore, if you hears nothing to the contrairy,
when I've been gone half an hour, you mount your nag, ride quietly up
the lane, and keep your hyes open."~417~~

CHAPTER LI -- FREDDY COLEMAN FALLS INTO DIFFICULTIES

"I am he that am so love-shaked,--
I pray you, tell me your remedy."
--_As You Like It_.

"I am sprighted with a fool, frighted, and angered worse."
--_Cymbeline_.

OH! that tedious half-hour! I should like to know, merely as a
curious matter of calculation, how many minutes there were in that
half-hour--sixty-five at the very least; the hands of my watch stuck
between the quarter and twenty minutes for f