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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
effort on the part of his progenitor. Simon firmly believed there was nothing that his
father could not do.
His respect and love for his mother was of a totally different order. He looked upon her
with a certain awe, as on something infinitely precious. Every one in the house had
impressed upon him that she was a real lady — "quite, quite the lady,” the housemaid
said. Even Aunt Binney, though occasionally unsympathetic when Simon expressed his
admiration for the person in question, had several times informed him that his mother,
in point of family, was as good, in fact a deal better, than Mrs. Charnock. Mrs.
Fleetwood was a pretty, delicate-looking woman, with an expression of habitual
discontent, and a mental condition perpetually melancholy. She had never quite
forgiven the honest yeoman, her husband, for marrying her, and she could not forget the
fact that he was nearly thirty years older than herself.
Both of these circumstances were constantly borne in mind by Mr. Fleetwood himself,
and his manner towards his wife was, in consequence, slightly tinged with remorse. The
consideration of her absolutely penniless condition when, in his hale middle-age, he had
fallen a victim to her charms, did not seem in any way to mitigate his offence. His
prevailing attitude towards her was one of atonement, particularly since the original
cause of displeasure had been aggravated by Simon's birth. Mrs. Fleetwood had several
times intimated to her husband that the only alleviation she could hope for in her hard
lot would be the possession of a little girl, who should resemble her own people, and
whom she could bring up
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entirely in her own way; and lo! She found herself the mother of a fine, sturdy boy, who
was exactly like his father and his father's folk. A boy with frank blue eyes, and massive
limbs, and broad shoulders — a boy that any ordinary mother might have been proud of,
but who, as Mrs. Fleetwood fretfully declared, would never be anything but a yeoman.
She found some consolation in dressing him in velvet tunics and in curling his abundant
brown hair; while he was in petticoats, at least, she would try to think he was her child,
she said; and, later on, come what might, he should at least have the education of a
gentleman; he should go to a public school and afterwards to college. He must have the