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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
He knew that he himself would only be in the way, so he would go back to the Hall
presently and appear again in the morning.
Then Mr. Charnock buttoned up his coat, and shook hands warmly with Friend
Fleetwood and Miss Belinda, thanking them both heartily for their hospitality, and
congratulating Simon on so cleverly coming upon his lady in the very nick of time.
He drove homewards in the best possible spirits, but his exhilaration evaporated all too
soon, after his arrival
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at Charnleigh Hall, for the servants were irritating enough to go about with gloomy
faces, all being sorely anxious about their good mistress. Miss Gifford, moreover, had
departed, deeming that her presence would be inconvenient at such a moment, and
feeling, once she had been reassured as to the condition of Madam Charnock, almost
relieved at the pretext which enabled her to escape from Humphrey. Before she had left
the house, however, he had cornered her and made his proposal in due form, receiving
to his chagrin and astonishment a scared but determined refusal. He now greeted his
uncle with a lowering brow, and the pair sat down to dinner in the very worst of
humours. Mr. Charnock bethought him once more of that unaccountable change of
opinion of the fellow Gifford, of his own difficulties, and of the fact that he did not
know where to turn for £15,000. And Humphrey's meditations were much of the same
nature; he, too, had liabilities which he had intended to meet with the fortune
accumulated by the late worthy Mr. Gifford during his prosperous commercial career.
All had seemed to promise well at first, and the young lady's change of mind was as
unaccountable as that of her brother. Not that uncle and nephew confided in each other;
the Squire fondly hoped that his intentions were known only to Renshaw, Gifford, and
himself; and Humphrey, for his part, was determined to own his recent humiliation to
no one, save perchance his cousin Rachel, whom he more than half suspected of
bringing it about. He was angry with her on more than one account, and yet he looked
forward with an eagerness, not due altogether to his wrath, to the moment which would
enable him to take her to task.