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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"However, I will not have you say I condemn you unheard; therefore, if you have any
explanation to give, let me hear it. I am indeed curious to know what it can be.”
There was a moment's silence — Simon, white to the very lips, returning her haughty
gaze with one more steady, but as proud.
"Come!” she cried, with an impatient stamp of her foot, "let us hear this explanation."
"There is no explanation," said Simon. “If you can believe what you have said — if,
after what has passed between us, you can think of me as you do, Rachel, I will give no
explanation. It is indeed best for us to part now. Since it is your wish that I should keep
our marriage secret, I consent to do so — for the present. But I will make no definite
promise; when I think the time has come for me to speak, be assured that I will
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speak. And now, farewell, my wife, Rachel. Remember that you are my wife, and that
you must henceforth be the guardian of my honour as well as of your own."
Her eyes, which had been fixed upon his face, followed him, as it were involuntarily, to
the door, and watched till it closed behind him. He was half-way down the stairs when
he heard it open again, and he paused, his heart leaping with a sudden almost sickening
hope. He heard her footsteps in the passage, and leaning back against the wall,
trembling and voiceless in his agony of expectation, saw her bending over the balusters;
but the white pitiless face looked past him, and her voice called out with that new
wavering harshness, inquiring of those below if the gentleman had returned from the
coach office yet, and bidding them tell him that Miss Charnock was ready to start on her
journey.
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CHAPTER XXVII.
Ah I who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
I’ll join with black despair against my soul,
And to myself become an enemy.