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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[235]
had danced twice with the Prince, and twice with Mr. Brummel. The valse, she
informed her mother, was a most delightful form of exercise, and she quite revoked all
her former objections to it. She walked daily on the Steine, and was quite surrounded by
beaux and dandies whenever she took the air. His Royal Highness not infrequently
condescended to pace beside her for a turn or two; nothing, indeed, could exceed his
affability. Lady Susan gave card-parties of an evening, but Rachel had not yet joined,
for it seemed to her that a monstrous deal of money was won and lost by the players,
male and female, and the condition of her purse forbade this hazardous amusement. The
letters arrived with tolerable frequency at first, but after she had been some time at
Brighton there was a long silence. Mrs. Charnock lamented over it to Simon when she
met him.
"I cannot but feel anxious," she sighed; and he, poor fellow, could say little to comfort
her, for, in truth, he was anxious too.
One morning, to his surprise, she came out to him in the field where he was
superintending the operations of his men. She called to him, and when they had drawn
apart from the others told him tremulously that she had that morning received a
communication which disturbed her.
“You have heard from Rachel?" he cried quickly.
“Nay. This concerns her, I fancy, but it has been sent to me anonymously. The cover is
directed in a strange hand, but I believe it proceeds from Humphrey. Read this, Simon, I
blush to show it to you — I would not do so, but that I have no one with whom to take
counsel."
Simon received the document from her shaking hand; it proved to be a printed paper
containing some satirical verses such as were then much in vogue. They were
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headed "A New Star," and spoke of a recent discovery made at Brighton by "England's
Hope and Glory," whose studies in astronomy were already of so varied and remarkable
a character. It was not enough for him to single out luminaries whose radiance had long
— over long, perhaps— dazzled the world, or to draw attention to those astral bodies