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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"Aye, curse you! You’ve made that impossible. But you shall not have my sister, I say.
Come, let us have
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a double bargain. If I give up Rachel Charnock — and I’ll pick me up as good before
I’m six months older—promise me that you will venture on no more impertinent
gallantries with my sister."
“Good Heavens!" broke involuntarily from Simon. He almost laughed aloud at what
seemed to him a preposterous idea.
"Aye, you need not think to brazen it out. What! you would have two sweethearts, you
impudent dog? Why, what a Lothario is this! But come, lose no time — promise me!"
“I do not know what you mean," returned Simon, with gathering indignation. "For
shame! Is nothing sacred to you? You make as little of your own sister as of the lady
you profess to woo."
“You need not think to put me off like that," cried Gifford, turning his swollen and
disfigured face towards him, and endeavouring to leer at him from out of his fast
closing eye. "As far as Rachel is concerned, I leave her to you with an easy conscience,
for you know as well as I do that you may whistle for her. But the affair with my sister
is more serious. There is no use in denying it, man — I tell you the girl herself has
owned"
But Simon threw out his hand suddenly, his eyes flashing and his face crimson: "Tell
me nothing," he said sternly, "I will make no compact with you beyond the one you
know of. Be faithful to your share and I will keep silence — I will promise nothing
more than this. And now take yourself out of my sight, Edward Gifford, and keep that
foul tongue of yours in order. I have beaten you once in open fight — take care that I do
not thrash you like a hound."
Gifford slowly and painfully rose to his feet. "How the deuce am I to get away” he
inquired sullenly.
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"Every bone in my body is aching. I dare look no one in the face in this plight."