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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"She said, sir, that you had been good enough to consent to it," responded Rachel
promptly, but colouring with surprise and alarm behind her tea urn.
"Humph!" said Mr. Charnock; "she needn't have been in such a prodigious hurry. I am
not so sure that I can allow it now. Read what your uncle says."
Rachel picked up the letter, which he tossed to her, and perused it with burning cheeks.
Mr. John Charnock described in no measured terms the indignant astonishment with
Which he had read his brother's letter, his sense of the disgrace that such an alliance
must bring upon the whole family, his utter inability to conceive how the head of how
the head of the house could possibly countenance
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such an act of mad folly. He set forth the brilliancy of the prospects to which so
beautiful and accomplished a young woman as his niece was naturally entitled, and
wound up by declaring that he, on his part, was determined to leave no stone unturned
to avert the impending catastrophe. If, he added, pecuniary embarrassments were at the
bottom of this extraordinary affair, then he himself was willing to come forward to save
the family honour, and to prevent the name of Charnock being trampled in the dust. As
he was unfortunately laid up with an attack of gout, he could not attend his brother in
person, but intended to dispatch his son Humphrey without delay to represent him at
Charnleigh Hall. Rachel read the paper through, folded it, and returned it to her father.
“Evidently,” she said, with flashing eyes, "my uncle supposes he can bribe you to break
your word. Surely, sir, you will let him know that it is not possible for a Charnock to be
bought over."
She was prepared for some testy response, but not for the fury which was evoked by her
words. Mr. Charnock grew purple in the face, and was for a moment unable to speak.
By-and-bye, however, the power of utterance returned to him, and he stormed at the girl
after a manner which would have alarmed a less high-spirited damsel. But it merely
served to lash Rachel into a very pretty rage. She tapped her foot at some of her father's
invectives, while other's called forth glances that seemed positively to flame. The Squire
ended by ordering her to leave the room, and not suffer him to see her undutiful face
again that day. Rachel accordingly retired to her room in high dudgeon, and sat by her