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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"Well, Humphrey," replied the girl, turning about the little shoe in her hand and
surveying it with evident satisfaction, "I can but congratulate you on the admirable
manner with which you have hitherto concealed your attachment for Bertha Gifford.
Truly, it appeared to my ignorant eyes as though you found her conversation tedious,
and regarded her altogether with a kind of contemptuous indifference. But that, of
course, was because I did not understand."
Charnock threw himself back in his chair with an affected yawn, succeeded by a slight
smile.
"There are many things you do not understand, Rachel. You have, to begin with, crude,
old-fashioned notions, drawn no doubt from the sentimental romances which you have
read, about the position of woman, and the chivalrous attitude which man should hold
towards her. Now, my dear child, in all ages men have allowed women to delude
themselves with the fancy that we are their slaves, whereas in reality-" He broke off
with a short laugh.
Rachel's needle was quiet now, and she looked at her cousin with a heightened colour.
"In reality?" she repeated.
[128]
"Well, the first woman was created, you must remember, entirely for the solace and
more comfortable estate of man. The Creator saw that it was not good for him to be
alone, and so He gave him a companion. And thus it has ever been through the ages —
the woman is the supplement to the man's life."
Rachel looked up saucily. "There are two ways of regarding such matters," she said.
"Auld Nature swears the lovely dears, Her noblest work she classes, O; Her 'prentice
han' she tried on man, And then she made the lasses, O.' This is the saying of a man, I
beg to state, and a poet to boot."
"You have a flippant tongue, I must say," muttered Humphrey, unable for the moment
to think of a better retort.
There was silence in the room for a short space, the young man moodily watching the
little shoe as it was twisted this way and that by Rachel's nimble fingers. Neither her
skill nor her patience had been equal to the task of making the under part of her bright-