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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
to-morrow I am coming to help to press it — may I not, Miss Fleetwood? I have been
stirring and stirring as hard as any one, and I am so hot and so sticky. My mother is
coming to fetch me presently in the phaeton, so now I think it is time to go and clean me
— is not that the proper thing to say? Dolly has lent me an apron, for Miss Fleetwood's
were not big enough. Now I am going to clean me, Dolly, and you shall have your
apron back."
Simon had followed her into the kitchen, and now duly inspected the great copper pans
in which the fruit was seething, and the rows and rows of pots which were to be filled
on the morrow. Then his eyes reverted to Rachel herself, Rachel with her dress turned
back over her shorter frilled petticoat, and Dolly's apron with its great coarse bib pinned
across the pretty lace tucker; her cheeks were flushed and her eyes danced, and her hair
was ruffled indeed, and there were various tell-tale crimson fruit-stains not only on the
apron, but even on her own white arms. One little impudent splash had actually found
its way to the rounded chin, just beside the dimple, a fact which old Susan, presently
perceiving, made bold to remedy.
“My word, my word!" she cried, approaching the young lady with a napkin, “yo’ll carry
jam enough away wi' yo', missy, to spread a butty wi'! Coom, let's have this off before
Madam comes to fetch yo'."
And Rachel, stooping, actually suffered that bewitching chin to be polished by the
audacious old woman, who rubbed with right good will, and, moreover, so great a
freedom that Simon with difficulty refrained from interfering. She went upstairs
presently with Miss Fleetwood, laughing and chattering all the way, and Simon paced
about the hall, having been desired by his aunt to hold himself in readiness to receive
Mrs. Charnock. By-and-bye,
[75]
however, the shrill tones of his relative summoned him to the upper storey. "Come here,
Nephew, and bring the key of the best room; Miss Charnock has a fancy for seeing it."
Simon started and flushed; since his mother's death he had suffered no one but himself
to enter her favourite sitting-room. It was, no doubt, a happy omen that Rachel should
be the first to seek admittance there: her presence would render it all the more hallowed