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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
may have."
“Do not call these people my friends!" cried Rachel.
“I cannot bear to think of them. I believe that you are the only true friend I have in the
world.”
She gazed at him pleadingly, and seeing that his face did not relax, for indeed the very
depths of his emotion lent it an expression of sternness, she began to weep again very
piteously.
“Oh, Simon, do not be harsh with me; my heart will break if you do not forgive me."
"Forgive you!" said Simon, standing still, and looking down at her. "Alas! what right
have I" he broke off quickly. "I would lay down my life for you," he went on, with
seeming irrelevance; "I would give my heart's blood to save you from harm."
"I believe it," said Rachel. She raised her eyes, still wet with tears, and gazed at him
earnestly.
“Simon," she said, "you know the best and the worst of me. You are so strong and good
yourself I believe that you could make me good too. Will you help me?"
"Do you know what you are saying?" said Simon, and his great frame began to shake
like a reed in the wind. "How can I help you, how can I be anything to you unless"
“Unless?" repeated Rachel with a little tremulous, tearful smile, as she stretched out two
small wavering hands with a gesture at once gracious and confiding.
“Simon, you are the only man I have ever known that
[248]
I could trust with all my heart. If you want me, take me."
And Simon straightway took her —into his strong arms; then, half frightened at his own
temerity, he would have loosed her, but that she clung to him, half laughing and half
weeping. “Keep me safe, Simon," she murmured; "hold me fast I only feel safe with
you. Tell me that you love me, Simon! You have never told me yet that you love me."
“Have I not told you, sweetheart?" said Simon in a voice that scarcely sounded like his
own. “Oh, love, I can find no words to tell you, but you know."
"Yes, I know," said Rachel. "I have known a long time. Sometimes when I have felt
sick at heart yonder in town —there were times, I can tell you, Simon, when I hated