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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
"And this is what you have come to say?" murmured Madam Charnock, and Simon, all
absorbed in his own passion and his own misery, wondered vaguely why those soft eyes
of hers had become so dim. There was a pause, and then she said quietly —
"I thank you, Simon. I will follow your advice."
He rose, and bowing, walked unsteadily towards the door. But before he reached it she
called him by his name. "Simon! Give me your hand, Simon. In all my life I have never
met so honourable a man."
And then, with a little pettish cry: "Ah, Simon, why did not your mother marry one of
her own degree!"
He paused with his hand upon the latch.
"Not even for the hope of being nearer to her could I wish my father other than he was,"
he said, and he went away holding his head high.
[91]
CHAPTER VIII.
Content thee, gentle coz, let him alone.
He bears him like a portly gentleman
My only love sprung from my only hate.
Too early seen unknown, and known too late. —Shakespeare.
What excuse Madam Charnock made to her daughter or in what manner she managed to
divert her attention from the accumulation of household knowledge never transpired,
but Rachel came no more to the Farm. Miss Belinda marvelled much, and grumbled not
a little. It was the way with young creatures she said. They'd take up a thing that eager,
and seem to be that set on it, and then without rhyme or reason they'd give over caring
for it. Talk about fine ladies' housekeeping — she knew what that meant, and she need
look no farther nor Simon's own mother. Never would Miss Binney forget how set she
seemed on getting the keys off her when first she came to the place — not indeed that
Miss Binney wanted to keep them when her brother brought a new mistress to the Farm.
Hadn't she been there waiting on the threshold when the bride and bridegroom came