eleven o'clock
`` My dear Nephew , -- It is not often that I take up my pen to address you , for I know there is little need , as my niece Emily writes weekly . Frequently have I wondered what she could find to write for ; indeed , it was not the way in my youth for people to waste so much time saying little or nothing -- which is not my case at the present time , for your sister being gone on the Continent , it devolves upon me , that is not used to long statements , to let ye know , what ye will be very sorry to hear . I only hope it may be no worse before it is over . `` Matthew , the coachman , came running over to me on Monday morning last , and said would I come to the house , for the servants did not know what to be at , and told me that Johnnie , who had been to go back to Harrow by the eleven o'clock train , had got leave to drive the pheaton to the Junction with the four girls in it , and Bertram , who , by ill luck -- of I may use such a word -LRB- meaning no irreverence -RRB- -- of this dispensation of Providence , had not gone back to Mr. Tikey 's that morning . So far as I can make out , he thought he should be late , and so he turned those two spirited young horses down that steep sandy lane by the wood , to cut off a corner ; and whether the woodman 's children ran out and frightened them , or whether he was shouting and whooping himself , poor laddie -- for I heard something of both -- but Barbara was just sobbing her heart away when she told it , and he aye raised the echoes wherever he went ; but the horses set off , running away , tearing down that rough road . Johnnie shouted to them all to sit still , and so they did , though they were almost jolted out ; and if they had been let alone , there might have been no accident ; but two men sprung out of a hedge and tried to stop them , and they turned on to the common , and sped away like the wind towards home , till they came to the sand bank by the small inn , the Loving Cup , and there they upset the carriage , and when the two men got up to it Johnnie and all of them were tossed out , and the carriage was almost kicked to pieces by the horse that was not down . `` This is a long tale , Valentine , and I seem to have hardly begun it .