Had any one met him by the way they would assuredly have thought that the boy had been drinking, so strangely and unevenly did he walk.
His face was flushed almost purple, his eyes were bloodshot; he swayed to and fro as he walked, sometimes pausing altogether, sometimes hurrying along for a few steps.

Passing a field where the gate stood open he turned into it, kept on his way for some twenty yards further, and then fell at full length on the grass.

There he lay unconscious for some hours, and it was not until the evening dews were falling heavily that he sat up and looked round.
For some time he neither knew where he was nor what had brought him there.

At last the remembrance of what had passed flashed across him, and with a cry of "Father! father!" he threw himself at full length again with his head on his arm; but this time tears came to his relief, and for a long time he cried with a bitterness of grief even greater than that which he had suffered at his father's death.
The stars were shining brightly when he rose to his feet, his clothes were soaked with dew, and he trembled with cold and weakness.
"What am I to do ?" he said to himself; "what am I to do ?" He made his way back to the gate and leaned against it for some time; then, having at last made up his mind, he turned his back on the town and walked toward Varley, moving more slowly and wearily than if he was at the end of a long and fatiguing day's walk.

Slowly he climbed the hill and made his way through the village till he reached the Swintons' cottage.