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

The Salamanca Corpus: Yeoman Fleetwood (1900)
Charnock wished them to be friends — whatever might be the motive, the wish must be
respected.
Bertha now came forward, and his face changed. His response to her salutation left
nothing to be desired in the way of cordiality, and Edward Gifford, quick to mark the
difference, gazed in some wonder from one to the other. Bertha's blue eyes were alight;
she stammered as she spoke, and her colour came and went; and Simon, thinking to
himself in his simplicity that he had never seen so shy a girl, did his best to set her at
ease. His aunt would be down immediately, he told her; he had sent for her.
“But Saturday is a very busy day with us, you know," he added, smiling. “She will, I
fancy, require a little time to get ready."
Meanwhile Gifford, sauntering to the window at the farther end of the room, which
looked out into some back premises, became the amused observer of a curious little
scene which was there enacted. First came Dolly, tripping over the cobble stones and
shouting lustily for "Missus". In answer to her summons an old lady presently appeared
— an old lady who wore pattens and a huge apron; whose sleeves were rolled up high
on a pair of stout arms, and whose black cap was set awry on her sparse grey hair. In
one hand this lady carried a milkpan,
[111]
which she was critically inspecting, and to which she was apparently inviting Dolly's
attention. It was with evident difficulty that the latter succeeded in notifying to her the
arrival of distinguished company, but presently the fact was grasped, and consternation
ensued. The pan was thrust into Dolly's hand, and the pattens went clattering over the
stones at astonishing speed. Gifford turned away from the window with a yawn as the
portly figure vanished; the old body would take ages to' attire herself, and meanwhile he
was cold and thirsty. He was constantly thirsty, and indeed the one drawback to his
comfort at Charnleigh Hall was the inability to quench that thirst with the frequency to
which he was accustomed. He had often seen Madam Charnock's eyes fixed on him
with a searching and curiously disapproving gaze. He felt that she watched him, and
also, in some indefinable way, that she disliked him, and would be quick to take
advantage of any slip on his part Moreover, though he had excellent reasons for