in her propriety. She ignores the whole world around her as she
sits; with a raised chin and face flattened by affectation, she
pretends to declare aloud that she is positively not aware that any
man is even near her. She speaks as though to her, in her
womanhood, the neighborhood of men was the same as that of dogs or
cats. They are there, but she does not hear them, see them, or
even acknowledge them by any courtesy of motion. But her own face
always gives her the lie. In her assumption of indifference she
displays her nasty consciousness, and in each attempt at a would-be
propriety is guilty of an immodesty. Who does not know the timid
retiring face of the young girl who when alone among men unknown to
her feels that it becomes her to keep herself secluded? As many
men as there are around her, so many knights has such a one, ready
bucklered for her service, should occasion require such services.
Should it not, she passes on unmolested--but not, as she herself
will wrongly think, unheeded. But as to her of whom I am speaking,
we may say that every twist of her body and every tone of her voice
is an unsuccessful falsehood. She looks square at you in the face,
and you rise to give her your seat. You rise from a deference to
your own old convictions, and from that courtesy which you have
ever paid to a woman's dress, let it be worn with ever such hideous
deformities. She takes the place from which you have moved without
a word or a bow. She twists herself round, banging your shins with
her wires, while her chin is still raised, and her face is still
flattened, and she directs her friend's attention to another seated
man, as though that place were also vacant, and necessarily at her
disposure. Perhaps the man opposite has his own ideas about
chivalry. I have seen such a thing, and have rejoiced to see it.

You will meet these women daily, hourly, everywhere in the streets.