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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
Charnleigh; and she invariably found him kind, good-humoured, eager to anticipate the
wishes she was sometimes condescending enough to express, but with apparently no
desire to meet her on any other footing than that of mere friendship.
On one occasion, indeed, he ventured to step beyond his self-imposed limits, and
Rachel, who had been secretly slightly chagrined at his previous attitude, was,
nevertheless, inconsequent enough to repel his overtures with equal coldness and
promptitude. It happened to be a lovely summer's day, and Rachel, who had been
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walking with her mother when they encountered him, had lingered behind a few paces
to comment upon the fact to Simon.
"It is indeed a most perfect day," he replied. "I wish you could see my garden now, Miss
Charnock. The rose-trees are weighed down with blossom, and as for the strawberries
— I verily believe there is more fruit than leaves. I wonder whether you and Madam
Charnock would care to taste them. We have a little arbour yonder where you could sit
at ease, and my aunt would be proud to entertain you. I would pick the fruit for you, and
she would contribute her best cream."
And thereupon Rachel, for what reason she never afterwards knew, had thrown back her
head and averted her eyes, and replied, distantly, that she did not care for strawberries.
Then Simon had raised his hat and bowed, and fallen back to join the workmen he was
superintending.
Nevertheless when, as autumn advanced, Miss Belinda was taken suddenly and
grievously ill, Rachel was among the first to hasten to the Farm with kind inquiries and
sincere sympathy. Poor Aunt Binney, despite her seventy-five years, had ever been so
hale and hearty that no one was more surprised then herself when it presently became
evident that she must prepare with all speed to betake herself to a better world.
“Doctor says 'tis a break-up," she remarked to Simon one day with a puzzled air. “Eh,
dear! I never reckoned to go all of a sudden that gate. I allus reckoned as break-ups
come gradual like. This here 'titus is awful when it gets a real hold on ye — I don't seem
no ways able to shake it off. But if I am to go — and the Lord's will be done — I'd as