The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900 ... - Gredos

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
pushing forward with the point of her slender foot a chair which happened to stand
within reach of it.
Her cousin did sit down, but his face did not relax; on the contrary he regarded Rachel
with eyes which blazed with anger, and he bit his lip as though in the endeavour to keep
back words harsh enough to alarm her. But Rachel was not in the least disturbed;
nobody ever scolded or quarrelled with her, and it occurred to her that the experience
might be amusing. So she sat very composedly stitching, and, after a time, finding he
did not speak, raised her bright eyes for a moment from her work and said
inquiringly:—
"Well?"
"Well, Rachel, I would have you know that you have done me a very ill turn by your
mischievous folly.”
Rachel dropped the shoe into her lap: "Why, what have I done. Cousin?” she asked in
genuine amazement. "What folly can you mean?”
"What but the absurd notion of introducing the Giffords to that farmer fellow. Let me
tell you, your quixotic ideas of effecting a reconciliation have not succeeded — Gifford
has come back in a pretty fury, and vows he will never set foot in the place again.”
"What a pity!” cried the girl, much crestfallen.
"And that is not all. The stupid soft-witted little sister has gone out of her mind, I think.
Gifford declares she is positively moon-struck — flew at him, he says, like a tiger-cat
because he rated her for her familiarity with the low folk yonder. He protests he could
not get her away for ever so long, though Fleetwood had grossly insulted him; aye, and
took the fellow’s part against her own brother. Ned says ‘tis his belief that the little fool
has lost her heart to him.”
To Humphrey's surprise Rachel's face, instead of being shocked and horrified as he
anticipated, wreathed itself
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with smiles; she took up her shoe again, with evident relief, and presently began to hum
with every appearance of enjoyment.