he pilgrim's flask
of rum which he always carried on journeys exceeding a dozen miles,
though he seldom drank much of it. He poured it down the surgeon's
throat, with such effect that he quickly revived. Melbury got him on
his legs; but the question was what to do with him. He could not walk
more than a few steps, and the other horse had gone away.

With great exertion Melbury contrived to get him astride Darling,
mounting himself behind, and holding Fitzpiers round his waist with one
arm. Darling being broad, straight-backed, and high in the withers,
was well able to carry double, at any rate as far as Hintock, and at a
gentle pace.

CHAPTER XXXV.

The mare paced along with firm and cautious tread through the copse
where Winterborne had worked, and into the heavier soil where the oaks
grew; past Great Willy, the largest oak in the wood, and thence towards
Nellcombe Bottom, intensely dark now with overgrowth, and popularly
supposed to be haunted by the spirits of the fratricides exorcised from
Hintock House.

By this time Fitzpiers was quite recovered as to physical strength.
But he had eaten nothing since making a hasty breakfast in London that
morning, his anxiety about Felice having hurried him away from home
before dining; as a consequence, the old rum administered by his
father-in-law flew to the young man's head and loosened his tongue,
without his ever having recognized who it was that had lent him a
kindly hand. He began to speak in desultory sentences, Melbury still
supporting him.

"I've come all the way from London to-day," said Fitzpiers. "Ah,
that's the place to meet your equals. I live at Hintock--worse, at
Little Hintock--and I am quite lost there. There's not a man within
ten miles of Hintock who can comprehend me. I tell you, Farmer
What's-your-name, that I'm a man of education. I know several
languages; the poets and I are familiar friends; I used to read more in
metaphysics than anybody within fifty miles; and since I gave that up
there's nobody can match me in the whole county of Wessex as a
scientist. Yet I an doomed to live with tradespeople in a miserable
little hole like Hintock!"

"Indeed!" muttered Melbury.

Fitzpiers, increasingly energized by the alcohol, here reared himself
up suddenly from the bowed posture he had hitherto held, thrusting his
shoulders so violently against Melbury's breast as to make it difficult
for the old man to keep a hold on the reins. "People