the female sex. England is not without women of the
other kind, I suppose, but they are so rare that I met with none; while
all the women that I did meet had the soft, sweet charm given by the
contented consciousness of their womanhood. Womanhood looks out from an
Englishwoman's eyes; it speaks in every inflection of her voice. No
matter how clever she may be, how well informed, she never utters mind
pure and simple; she never lays a bare statement of thought or of fact
before you. She is too modest. A piece of her mind she does, indeed,
sometimes give you. But then, be sure, she is, of all times, the most
thoroughly womanlike and absolved from intellectuality; being, however,
thus in her excitement not peculiar among her sex. At all other times
she leaves an impression of gentleness, and a lack of intellectual
robustness; and, if you are a man at least, she, without any seeming
intention of so doing, keeps you constantly in mind that she is trusting
to you--to your strength, your ability, your position--to ensure that
she shall be treated with respect and tenderness, and taken care of; and
that therefore she owes you deference, and that it becomes her to be not
only as charming but as serviceable as possible. Even in the hardest
women there is a remnant at least of this. An Englishwoman shall be a
sort of she-bagman, a traveller for manufacturers, and in the habit of
riding second or even third class alone, from one end of England to the
other (and I talked with such women), and she shall yet show you this
gentle, womanly consciousness. A woman's eye there never looks straight
and steady into yours, saying, "I am quite able to take care of my own
person, and interests, and reputation. Don't trouble yourself about me
in those respects. Meantime, sir, I am taking your measure." There is
always a mute appeal from her womanhood to your manhood. This charm
belongs to the Englishwoman of all ranks, and beautifies everything that
she does, even if she does it awkwardly, which is not always. She shows
it if she is a great lady and welcomes you, or if she is a housemaid and
serves you. Not actually every Englishwoman is thus of course; for there
are hard, and proud, and cruel, and debased women there, as there are
elsewhere. But, apart from these exceptions, this is the manner of
Englishwomen; and, in so far as a man may judge, this manner, or the
counterpart of it, does not forsake them when they are among themselves.

This so