From Dickens:
‘We all believe, up at the Lodge, Rachael, that he will be freed from suspicion, sooner or later.’
‘The better I know it to be so believed there, my dear,’ said Rachael, ‘and the kinder I feel it that you come away from there, purposely to comfort me, and keep me company, and be seen wi’ me when I am not yet free from all suspicion myself, the more grieved I am that I should ever have spoken those mistrusting words to the young lady. And yet I— ’
We usually use should have to say that something was not done, despite being desirable. But in this example, the mistrusting words were indeed spoken (earlier in the book). How would one explain the use of the should have construction then?
Would the following be fully equivalent to the above quote:
‘We all believe, up at the Lodge, Rachael, that he will be freed from suspicion, sooner or later.’
‘The better I know it to be so believed there, my dear,’ said Rachael, ‘and the kinder I feel it that you come away from there, purposely to comfort me, and keep me company, and be seen wi’ me when I am not yet free from all suspicion myself, the more grieved I am that I have spoken those mistrusting words to the young lady. And yet I— ’