rience. The virtuous woman is inexorable, although her
virtue is very often like a fortress which never had to capitulate for
the reason that it never was attacked.

If I were a woman, oh, how I should hate women!

Madame de Stael said that what consoled her to know that she was a
woman was that she would never have to marry a woman.

CHAPTER XII

COURTING IN FRANCE AND ENGLAND

Kneeling and sitting--The piquancy of French courting--The use of
the second person singular--The sealing kiss.

The art of courtship as practised in France and England leaves the
amorous Gaul sometimes at a decided disadvantage, and sometimes at a
marked advantage, by comparison with the Briton. On the whole, I think
honours are easy. Take the declaration of love. In France the foolish
animal has to go on his knees at the feet of the adored one, who
through her modestly drooping eyelashes can make an inventory of the
suitor's least defects--of the bald spot on his crown, his languishing
eyes, with their white turned up in the ardour of passion, maybe of the
little wart which will obtrude itself for observation, especially at
such a moment. The poor Frenchman is obliged to run the risk of making
himself very ridiculous.

But now turn to England. There, if you would a-wooing go, you sit down
comfortably, very much at your ease, with the beloved object of your
dreams at your side, or sitting on a cushion at your feet. Thus
situated, you can murmur your soft whispers of love into her ears
without any risk of dislocating your spinal column. The ladies will
possibly think that the business is more nicely arranged in France, but
they will hardly get the other sex to agree with them.

In America I never was able to make any observations on the subject.
Those provoking Yankees invariably waited until I had left their houses
to proceed to business.

What adds, however, to the charm of the French system of making love is
that French girls do not enjoy the same freedom as English ones, and
that the declarations of love are made in the sweet moments stolen from
the watchfulness of their parents.

What, for instance, would an English girl, or for that matter an
American one, think of the young lady in M. Victorien Sardou's comedy
of 'Old Bachelors,' who, finding herself alone with her lover--a lover
to whom she is engaged to be married--reproaches him with having
ventured into her presence when he knew that there was no one with h