The Woodlanders

Melbury waited till Mrs. Charmond had re-entered the drawing-room, and

then followed after Fitzpiers, thinking that he would allow the latter

to mount and ride ahead a little way before overtaking him and giving

him a piece of his mind. His son-in-law might possibly see the second

horse near his own; but that would do him no harm, and might prepare

him for what he was to expect.

The event, however, was different from the plan. On plunging into the

thick shade of the clump of oaks, he could not perceive his horse

Blossom anywhere; but feeling his way carefully along, he by-and-by

discerned Fitzpiers's mare Darling still standing as before under the

adjoining tree. For a moment Melbury thought that his own horse, being

young and strong, had broken away from her fastening; but on listening

intently he could hear her ambling comfortably along a little way

ahead, and a creaking of the saddle which showed that she had a rider.

Walking on as far as the small gate in the corner of the park, he met a

laborer, who, in reply to Melbury's inquiry if he had seen any person

on a gray horse, said that he had only met Dr. Fitzpiers.

It was just what Melbury had begun to suspect: Fitzpiers had mounted

the mare which did not belong to him in mistake for his own--an

oversight easily explicable, in a man ever unwitting in horse-flesh, by

the darkness of the spot and the near similarity of the animals in

appearance, though Melbury's was readily enough seen to be the grayer

horse by day. He hastened back, and did what seemed best in the

circumstances--got upon old Darling, and rode rapidly after Fitzpiers.

Melbury had just entered the wood, and was winding along the cart-way

which led through it, channelled deep in the leaf-mould with large ruts

that were formed by the timber-wagons in fetching the spoil of the

plantations, when all at once he descried in front, at a point where

the road took a turning round a large chestnut-tree, the form of his

own horse Blossom, at which Melbury quickened Darling's pace, thinking

to come up with Fitzpiers.

Nearer view revealed that the horse had no rider. At Melbury's

approach it galloped friskily away under the trees in a homeward

direction. Thinking something was wrong, the timber-merchant

dismounted as soon as he reached the chestnut, and after feeling about

for a minute or two discovered Fitzpiers lying on the ground.

"Here--help!" cried the latter as soon as he felt Melbury's touch; "I

have been thrown off, but there's not much harm done, I think."