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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[207]
CHAPTER XVIII.
My love is of a birth as rare
As, 'tis, for object, strange and high:
It was begotten by despair
Upon impossibility.
Magnanimous despair alone
Could show me so divine a thing,
Where feeble hope could ne'er have flown,
But vainly flapped its tinsel wing. —Andrew Marvell.
Some days later, Miss Charnock chanced to encounter Yeoman Fleetwood in the avenue
which led to the Hall. He greeted her with a bright smile.
"I am fortunate in meeting you," he said. "I had thought of calling at the Hall, and
requesting you to walk a little way with me."
"Indeed? I shall be very happy to do so, Mr. Fleetwood; but I am at a loss to find a
reason for your desire of my company."
"If you will do me the favour of coming with me, madam, the reason will explain itself I
am anxious to secure your approval of measures I have just taken here."
Accommodating his pace to hers, he led her across the park; skirting the plantation, and
halting finally at the very scene of their recent disagreement Rachel now perceived that
a line of railings spanned this particular portion of the park, a little above the strip of
newly replaced sods.
She had walked by the yeoman's side in silence; she was beginning to feel shy with
Simon, uncertain of what he would do or say. Her thoughts had been busy with
[208]
him of late, and she had come to the conclusion that she knew him very little. There
were depths in him which she could not fathom; turns of character which baffled her;