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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
Meanwhile Simon, sitting opposite his aunt, was listening absently to her comments on
the events of the day. She had been babbling for some little time about
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the accident, about the curious coincidence which had brought Simon to Charnleigh
Woods just at the right moment — with a digression as to his foolhardiness in hazarding
himself upon such a spot in such weather — and had wandered on to speak of the
Liverpool physician, of Madam Charnock's maid, of Madam herself; how ghastly she
had looked when Simon had carried her in, and how she, Miss Binney, had given her up
for dead.
"Eh, when I saw her laid upon the bed where your poor mother died, Simon, it give me
a turn — that it did. When I see her white face on the pillow I couldn't but think o' th'
other white face as we last see lying there, you and me, my poor lad. Not that your
mother's eyes looked same as Madam's— eh, I was fair frightened when Madam opened
those great dark eyes, lookin’ about her so strange; and her face is dark, too — and your
mother's, you know, Simon, was white as a lily. Eh dear, when I think of all we have
seen in yon room! 'Twasn't your grandmother's room, you know, Simon; it used to be a
spare room; but when your mother came as a bride she fancied it, you see; she reckoned
it was prettier nor t'other, and your father couldn't deny her nought, and he had it all
done up for her wi' new hangings and a new carpet. Eh, you were born in that room,
Simon, and your mother and father died there. Dear o' me! And now Madam Charnock's
there, and the young lady. Well, I am sorry as aught should happen to Madam, and I
hope, that I do, she'll soon be about again — eh, Simon, it 'ud be terrible, wouldn't it, if
she was to die here in our best room?"
Simon's mind had drifted away on what seemed to be a long reverie. He was resting his
elbows on the table and his chin upon his hand. His face — as much of it as could be
seen — wore a look which rather scandalised
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Miss Binney at such a juncture — a kind of inner gladness, a brightness usually foreign
to it. He now roused himself with a start:—