If there had been the faintest possibility of communicating, in that frightful weather, with the distant county town, I should have sent there or gone there myself.
I even went the length of speaking to the groom, an old servant whom I knew I could trust.

The man stared at me in astonishment, and then pointed through the window to the blinding hail and the writhing trees.
"No horse that ever was foaled, sir," he said, "would face _that_ for long.

It's almost a miracle that the postman got here alive.

He says himself that he dursn't go back again.

I'll try it, sir, if you order me; but if an accident happens, please to remember, whatever becomes of _me,_ that I warned you beforehand." It was only too plain that the servant was right, and I dismissed him.
What I suffered from that one accident of the missing newspaper I am ashamed to tell.