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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"Oh, what a big sigh!" she cried, laughing. "It carries conviction with it. Well, to say the
truth, you have done wisely in keeping away to-day, for the atmosphere yonder is
stormy, Simon, distinctly stormy. My father glares at Mamma, and will not speak to me
at all. No, do not look so troubled, the clouds will pass away in time. Even this one," she
added gaily, "has a silver lining. If Papa had been as conversational as usual our dinner
would not have been over so soon, and I should not have been able to come to see you.
So let us be thankful for that."
By this time they had entered the parlour, and Rachel glanced round it almost as Simon
had done.
"Dear old room!" she cried. "How little I thought the first evening when I took refuge
here from the rain that it was to be my home. Do you remember that evening, Simon?"
"I was thinking of it the very moment that you came," said he.
"Were you, indeed? And was that why you were
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smiling to yourself? You were so absorbed you did not hear my first tap. I had been
watching you quite a long time before you saw me. Were you thinking about me,
Simon?"
The colour in her cheeks had deepened, and her voice was very soft and caressing.
"I was even thinking about you," returned he, "which must, I am sure, surprise you very
much."
He spoke half jestingly, but with the vibration in his voice which Rachel had learned to
connect with deep emotion; and stretched out his hand the while, half timidly, half
reverently, to touch her curls.
"I, too, was thinking of that blessed night which brought you to me first — here to my
home — and of how, when I looked in and saw you standing by my hearth, I thought"
“What did you think?" said she, as he paused. Her eyes were downcast, so that the long
black lashes almost rested on the cheeks in which the happy rose was ever deepening.
"I can hardly tell you what I thought," went on Simon. "I only know that my heart went
out to you."