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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
[43]
This was his last year at Eton, and he was glad at the prospect of leaving, for his life
there had been much less pleasant since his quarrel with young Humphrey Charnock.
Humphrey was an ungenerous enemy, and had managed to alienate many of Simon's
favourite companions from him on their return to school, after the dispute on the ice.
Boys for the most part are not snobbish, but some of his schoolfellows could not help
being influenced by Humphrey's fancy pictures of Simon's home and parents, and, as
their altered attitude towards him caused him to assume a proud and somewhat defiant
demeanour, he was soon set down as an insolent upstart. He had made no complaint,
however, had forborne to retaliate on Humphrey — who had, indeed, been careful to
refrain from any open attack — and had merely held himself aloof from those who
despised him. But he was, nevertheless, keenly conscious of his anomalous position,
and, moreover, aware that the course of education marked out for him was ill-adapted to
his future position in life. He meant, if possible, to avoid the college career which was
to succeed his term at Eton.
One day his opportunity came for discussing the matter with his father. They had gone
together to show the colts before alluded to a neighbour, a farmer in a large way, though
not of such high standing as Mr. Fleetwood, When they set forth together, Mrs.
Fleetwood, looking down from her mullioned window, felt something that was almost
pride as she contemplated her son. He was now nearly eighteen, and as tall as his father.
Simon's shoulders, too, were like his, but his figure, besides the litheness and suppleness
of youth, possessed a certain grace which must have always been absent from the
yeoman's. The carriage of the head actually reminded Mrs. Fleetwood of her own
father's, and her heart gave a throb of joy as she realised that,
[44]
after all, the Weston blood was beginning to tell in this stalwart son of hers. But when
burly Farmer Rushton met the pair in the great pasture, his talk was at first all of the
extraordinary likeness between father and son. Simon drove up for his closer inspection
the three-year-old colt which they were already beginning to handle and train, and