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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
live, and he was so kind. He has always done his very best to make up to me for the
change in my circumstances; you cannot think how generous and considerate he is. But
of course, I cannot help feeling that I have cut myself off from my proper sphere. I am
nothing but a yeoman's wife: nobody visits me, no one recognises that I have the right to
move in good society. I have not a single friend. So you see I am not so happy as you
think."
"I do not see," returned Madam Charnock a little coldly, "why that should be — with a
husband who adores you, who is gentle, courteous, chivalrous — ah, madam, I can tell
you many of his so-called superiors could learn a lesson from him I With such a son as
yours — Heavens! how many mothers would give their heart's blood for such a son! —
what do such small things matter?"
"It is very lonely," murmured Mrs. Fleetwood, anxious to justify herself
"Lonely!" echoed the other vehemently. "There are different kinds of loneliness, I
suppose, just as there are different kinds of happiness. Some people, you know, have to
leave kindred and country to dwell among strange folk and adapt themselves to strange
customs. They may see company in abundance, but surely the people who come and go
can best be called acquaintances, one has left one's friends behind. Still while one
retains the love of husband and child one cannot say one is lonely. See," she added with
a little laugh, that somehow sounded very sad, "I have been talking of my own case.
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I have, you see, some little troubles — I, too, have sometimes missed all that I used to
know and love in my own country; at times when I realise how very, very far away I
am, the tears will come."
"But surely sometimes, madam," said Mrs. Fleetwood, "you visit France — the journey
is not such a very tedious one.”
"France is not my country," explained Mrs. Charnock.
"The people here, I fancy," she pursued with a smile, "set down every foreigner as
French. But I am Hungarian. My country is a long way off, and the journey thither is
complicated and difficult. But, after all, these are minor things; one can always be
happy in doing one's duty."