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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
I seal my love to be. —Alice Meynell.
But Madam Charnock did not die. She awoke to consciousness in a quaint panelled
room, which she seemed to recognise, but which was certainly not her own. Faces came
and went about the great four-post bed, but whether she saw them in a dream or they
were realities, she was too drowsy to verify. Now Rachel's face appeared between the
curtains, now the Squire's; Miss Belinda's countenance hovered there for a few
moments, and was succeeded by that of Purbeck, Mrs. Charnock's own maid. There was
a strange man's voice in the room, a strange man's hand upon her brow; it rested on her
wrist for a time, and then the room seemed empty again, though Madam Charnock
knew that Rachel was sitting behind the curtain at her head. She was conscious all the
while of a want, a desire, the nature of which she could not define. She had some great
plan in her head, some very important piece of business to transact, but she could not at
the time remember what it was. By-and-bye, however, Rachel’s pretty face was thrust
round the curtain, and bent down so close to her mother that she stretched out a feeble
hand and touched it. It was no dream, that was Rachel's cheek, soft and pale and wet —
was it with tears? Then all at once Madam Charnock knew what it was she wanted,
“Is Simon there?" she asked faintly.
[172]
"This is Simon's house, Mother dearest, and he is downstairs."
"Ask him to come here."
Rachel looked surprised, but immediately rose, and after a moment or two Simon stood
by the bed. Rachel was there, too, a pace or two away.
"Come close, Simon,” murmured Madam Charnock; "bend down, I want to ask you
something, and I know you will tell me the truth."
She gazed searchingly at his face; its expression was the same as that on which her eyes
had closed a little while before — tender, grave, and compassionate.
"Am I dying, Simon?" she whispered earnestly.
"I hope and believe not, madam," he returned, in the same tone. "You have had a bad
accident, but the doctor thinks with care you will recover."