The lady who rides and demands assistance in truth becomes a nuisance
before the run is over, let her beauty be ever so transcendent, her
horsemanship ever-so-perfect, and her battery of general feminine
artillery ever so powerful. She is like the American woman, who is
always wanting your place in a railway carriage, and demanding it, too,
without the slightest idea of paying you for it with thanks; whose study
it is to treat you as though she ignored your existence while she is
appropriating your services. The hunting lady who demands assistance is
very particular about her gates, requiring that aid shall be given to
her with instant speed, but that the man who gives it shall never
allow himself to be hurried as he renders it. And she soon becomes
reproachful, oh, so soon! It is marvellous to watch the manner in which
a hunting lady will become exacting, troublesome, and at last imperious,
deceived and spoilt by the attention which she receives. She teaches
herself to think at last that a man is a brute who does not ride as
though he were riding as her servant, and that it becomes her to assume
indignation if every motion around her is not made with some reference
to her safety, to her comfort, or to her success. I have seen women look
as Furies look, and heard them speak as Furies are supposed to speak,
because men before them could not bury themselves and their horses out
of their way at a moment's notice, or because some pulling animal would
still assert himself while they were there, and not sink into submission
and dog-like obedience for their behoof.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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