noon
And now , to add to our misfortunes , to pile Pelion on Ossa , we _ lose our way _ . Mr. Parker can not be persuaded to abandon the idea of the short-cut . The natural result follows . If we were hopelessly bewildered -- utterly at sea among the maze of lonely roads into which he has again betrayed us at high noon -- what must we be now in the angry dark of the evening ? This time we have to go into a field to turn , a field full of tussocks , which in the dark we are unable to see , and over which the horses flounder and stumble . However , now at length -- now that we have wasted three-quarters of an hour , and that it is quite pitch dark -- -LRB- I need hardly say that we have no lamps -RRB- -- we have at length regained the blessed breadth of the high-road , and I think that not even our coachman , to whose faith most things seem possible , will attempt to leave it a second time . I give a sigh of relief .