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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
her, and that she is quite safe. And, Belinda, would it not be well to prepare a warm
drink for the dear little girl?"
She had drawn her closer to the fire as she spoke, and now began with eager haste to
unfasten the strings of the child's beaver bonnet and little pelisse.
"Dear heart, dear heart, she's as cold as any stone! Come, let us take off the shoes and
warm the poor little feet."
Simon retired to do his mother's bidding, and returned.
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presently to announce that the messenger had been despatched. His father had entered
meanwhile, and the group round the wide hearth made a pretty picture. Simon's mother,
her face alight with admiring tenderness, was bending over her little charge to whom
Aunt Binney, squatting on the floor in the firelight, was presenting, with diverse
blandishments, a cup of oatmeal posset. The little girl was sitting up looking about her
with bright inquiring eyes. Simon had never seen the like of those eyes before; they
were like stars, he said to himself. The head, with its thick crop of dark curls, was
beautifully set on the little round neck, the contour of which could now be seen since
the removal of the pelisse. Beneath the frills of the muslin frock two small bare feet
stretched themselves towards the blaze. As he entered his mother weighed them gently
in one hand.
"Do you see, Mr. Fleetwood?" she asked, glancing upwards towards the comer where
her husband stood smiling with that rather sad smile of his which puzzled Simon, "do
you see what beautiful little feet? See the fine ankle, and the instep, how high and
arched! I’ll warrant that water would run under the sole of this foot if one were to try.
She is a jewel altogether. Mark me the turn of her head, and this fine little hand. Why,
Simon's hand at a year old was broader."
"Aye, aye. I’ll engage it was," returned her husband.
Mrs. Fleetwood pressed the child to her almost passionately.
"Would that she were mine!" she cried. "I should have had a child like this that I could
understand and love."