e Diamond. Give me time to think, and time
to question you. I believe the vindication of your innocence is in my
hands!"

"Explain yourself, for God's sake! What do you mean?"

In the excitement of our colloquy, we had walked on a few steps, beyond
the clump of dwarf trees which had hitherto screened us from view.
Before Ezra Jennings could answer me, he was hailed from the high road
by a man, in great agitation, who had been evidently on the look-out for
him.

"I am coming," he called back; "I am coming as fast as I can!" He turned
to me. "There is an urgent case waiting for me at the village yonder;
I ought to have been there half an hour since--I must attend to it
at once. Give me two hours from this time, and call at Mr. Candy's
again--and I will engage to be ready for you."

"How am I to wait!" I exclaimed, impatiently. "Can't you quiet my mind
by a word of explanation before we part?"

"This is far too serious a matter to be explained in a hurry, Mr. Blake.
I am not wilfully trying your patience--I should only be adding to
your suspense, if I attempted to relieve it as things are now. At
Frizinghall, sir, in two hours' time!"

The man on the high road hailed him again. He hurried away, and left me.

CHAPTER X

How the interval of suspense in which I was now condemned might
have affected other men in my position, I cannot pretend to say. The
influence of the two hours' probation upon my temperament was simply
this. I felt physically incapable of remaining still in any one place,
and morally incapable of speaking to any one human being, until I had
first heard all that Ezra Jennings had to say to me.

In this frame of mind, I not only abandoned my contemplated visit to
Mrs. Ablewhite--I even shrank from encountering Gabriel Betteredge
himself.

Returning to Frizinghall, I left a note for Betteredge, telling him that
I had been unexpectedly called away for a few hours, but that he might
certainly expect me to return towards three o'clock in the afternoon. I
requested him, in the interval, to order his dinner at the usual hour,
and to amuse himself as he pleased. He had, as I well knew, hosts of
friends in Frizinghall; and he would be at no loss how to fill up his
time until I returned to the hotel.

This done, I made the best of my way out of the town again, and roamed
the lonely moorland country which surrounds Frizinghall, until my watch
told me that it was time, at last, to return to Mr. Candy'