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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"Madam, I like not to think of her thus cast adrift. It seemed natural to me to return here,
but if it is my presence which makes her shun Charnleigh, I can go away."
He spoke impulsively, but Mrs. Charnock shook her head.
"My poor Simon, can you take away the memory of what has been, the scenes where
my child was wont to be so happy, but which are odious to her now? She cannot bear
the name of home — she will not forgive her
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father. She imagines, my poor Rachel! that by surrounding herself with amusements she
can drown the bitterness of her heart Well, let us talk no more of it —as you say,
nothing can be done. We must only be patient, Simon."
They parted then, and he saw the lady but seldom afterwards, for her visits to the Farm
had perforce to be paid without her husband's knowledge. The tidings which she gave
him at these rare intervals were sparse and unsatisfactory. Rachel wrote that she was
enjoying herself vastly; now she had been to this assembly, now to that. The Prince of
Wales had visited Tunbridge, and she had played the harp for him. He was certainly
monstrous fond of music, and had told her the harp was the instrument he preferred for
feminine use, insomuch as it afforded opportunities for displaying the beauties of the
hand and arm. She had also met Mr. Brummel, who had been mightily attentive, the
compliments which he had paid her having aroused furious jealousy in the breasts of the
recognised belles of the place. He had vowed to make her the rage at Brighton during
the ensuing winter, and she promised herself much entertainment from the fact, for it
was well known that if he possessed the will he had certainly the power to fulfil such an
engagement.
"All this does not sound very like our Rachel," said Madam, one day. "There is no mirth
in her letters, for all the pleasure she feigns to extract from these gaieties."
Simon folded up the paper gloomily and returned it to her; its flippant tone jarred upon
him. His heart was sore and heavy — could hers, then, throw off its load so easily?
Later on came news from Brighton of breakfasts at the Grove, a concert in the Pavilion
grounds, races on the Downs, a ball at the Castle Inn, at which Rachel