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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[363]
She spoke with an assumption of gracious condescension, at variance with her haggard
face and anxious eyes. Both rose, and Simon bowed over the hand which she extended
to him.
“I will wait on you without fail, madam," he said, "when I have anything of importance
to communicate."
[364]
CHAPTER XXXIII.
Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea,
The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape.
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape:
But O, too fond, when have I answer'd thee?
Ask me no more. —Tennyson.
A LITTLE before the appointed hour Simon was admitted into the Gifford's house, and
found Bertha waiting for him alone in a small room on the ground floor. As the door
closed behind him she ran towards him, wringing her hands; her face was paler than its
wont, and she had evidently been weeping.
"Alas, Cousin," she cried, "I have no good news for you! All our plans have come to
naught."
"She refuses to come," exclaimed Simon.
"She will not meet you," returned Bertha falteringly.
"She came here this afternoon — burst in upon me like a whirlwind, and raved and
stormed — I protest she frightened me. It seems she caught sight of you to-day, and at
once divined the motive of my invitation."
"She will not meet me," repeated Simon, half to himself, “she will not meet me."
"Indeed she was emphatic on that point," went on his cousin, somewhat reassured by his
apparent calm. "She accused me of treachery for having endeavoured to decoy her