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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[320]
have no reason to love the Squire, Simon; but, upon my life, if you were to see him now
you'd pity him."
Fleetwood was still silent, and Mr. Renshaw, suddenly discovering that the grate
contained nothing more animated than shavings, dropped his coat-tails and returned to
his chair.
"So there we are, you see. You can't be got rid of, my boy, as you yourself very truly
said. The Squire talks big about paying you off out of his income, and meanwhile I am
to be on the look-out for some one who will take up the mortgage. I say Yes, yes, to
both, but, as you know very well, either solution of the difficulty is equally remote.
Meanwhile your scruples may be at rest. As to the young lady, I know more about wine
than about women; but it seems to me that this prodigious outcry betokens that she is
not very happy in her mind. When a woman tells you she hates you, I’ve been given to
understand that she really likes you more than is quite comfortable. She'll come round,
she'll come round; and, mind you, when you do get hold of her, I rather imagine.
Yeoman Fleetwood, that you will find her a handful."
Simon smiled faintly and made no reply; and presently his old friend went away again,
wondering to himself what odd strain of ambition had mingled with the honest yeoman
blood which had constrained both father and son to marry so much above their own
degree, and led to such unsatisfactory results. Meanwhile Simon stood pondering,
wounded afresh by this new token of Rachel's eagerness to make the rupture between
them complete, and yet conscious of an odd satisfaction in the unlooked-for
development of events. They could not be rid of him; they could not, if they would,
shake off his claims. He might not actively exercise his sway over the Charnleigh lands;
yet he was suzerain
[321]
of them. Rachel also denied his rights, and would fain have loosed his bond, but,
nevertheless, she, too, was his. Oh, since the fates seemed bent on strengthening the
links which bound them to each other, surely it was not that she might chafe for ever at
the chain; surely some day it would draw her back to his embrace.