ne of the chivalry which girls in most other
grades of life experience--and none do they expect. In all disputes
between themselves and the men, their associates, they know that the
final argument is the knock-down blow. With the Romany girl, too, this
is the case, to be sure; but then, while the Romany girl, as a rule,
owing to tribal customs, receives the blow in patience, the English girl
is apt to return it, and with vigour. This condition of things gives the
English road-girl a frank independence of bearing which distinguishes her
from girls of all other classes. There is something of the charm of the
savage about her, even to her odd passion for tattoo. No doubt Isopel is
an idealisation of the class; but the class, with all its drawbacks, has
a certain winsomeness for men of Borrow's temperament.

But, unfortunately, his love of the wonderful, his instinct for
exaggeration, asserts itself even here. I need give only one instance of
what I mean. He makes Isopel Berners speak of herself as being taller
than Lavengro. Now, as Borrow gives Lavengro his own character and
physique in every detail, even to the silvery hair and even to the
somewhat peculiar method of sparring, and as he himself stood six feet
two inches, Isopel must have been better adapted to shine as a giantess
in a show than as a fighting woman capable of cowing the "Flaming Tinman"
himself.

It is a very exceptional woman that can really stand up against a trained
boxer, and it is, I believe, or used to be, an axiom among the nomads
that no fighting woman ought to stand more than about five feet ten
inches at the outside. A handsome young woman never looks so superb as
when boxing; but it is under peculiar disadvantages that she spars with a
man, inasmuch as she has, even when properly padded (as assuredly every
woman ought to be) to guard her chest with even more care than she guards
her face. The truth is, as Borrow must have known, that women, in order
to stand a chance against men, must rely upon some special and surprising
method of attack--such, for instance, as that of the sudden "left-hand
body blow" of the magnificent gypsy girl of whose exploits I told him
that day at "Gypsy Ring"--who, when travelling in England, was attached
to Boswell's boxing-booth, and was always accompanied by a favourite
bantam cock, ornamented with a gold ring in each wattle, and trained to
clap his wings and crow whenever he saw his mistress putting on th