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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[160]
But here Simon interrupted, with a pleading gesture, though he spoke sternly enough.
"Pray tell me no more! There — there is a mistake"
"But Bertha thinks"
"I beg you, Miss Charnock, not to tell me what my Cousin Bertha thinks." He was going
red and white by turns, and Rachel felt that he meant what he said. She coloured now
with anger and mortification.
"I suppose you consider me very officious — or else you are a changeable person. Do
you mean to tell me that you do not love Bertha Gifford?"
Fleetwood was silent for a moment; never had he been in so painful a predicament; had
any one but Rachel asked the question he would have curtly declined to answer, but he
could not pursue such a course with her; he could not even parry the direct inquiry; yet
his modest and kindly soul revolted against the slight he was forced to put upon his little
cousin.
“Madam,” he said gravely, “since you ask me I must tell you truly that my love for
Bertha Gifford is such a love as a man might bestow upon his sister."
"Then I must say I am at a loss to understand your conduct," cried Rachel indignantly.
"Bertha does not want to be your sister, nor did your attitude towards her convey the
impression that your affection for her was simply brotherly regard. Why did you, may I
ask, so often look at her as if you loved her?"
“Did I?” ejaculated Simon, in such evident bewilderment that, in spite of her wrath,
Rachel fell a-laughing.
"Why, yes, indeed you did, sir; I for one was certain that you had lost your heart to her."
"I am very sorry," said the yeoman simply; then, as Rachel laughed again, he looked at
her inquiringly.
“You are the very oddest man," she cried. "You did, I assure you, and how do you
account for it?"
[161]
"Why," said Simon, looking at her with those frank, earnest eyes of his, "I have lived
such a lonely life, and I — have so little to say to women, that when I saw this pretty