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.