Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1878 - Inland voyage

Antwerp to Boo:n. 7
of curious foreign ways, which need not here be
specified. She spoke to us very fluently in her
jargon, asked us information as to the manners
of the present day in E?igland, and obligingly
corrected us when we attempted to answer.
r>ut as we were dealing with a woman, perhaps
our information was not so much thrown away
as it appeared. The sex likes to pick up know-
ledge and yet preserve its superiority. It is
good policy, and almost necessary in the cir-
cumstances. If a man finds a woman admire
him, were it only for his acquaintance with
geography, he will begin at once to build upon
the admiration. It is only by unintermittent
snubbing that the pretty ones can keep us in
our place. Men, as Miss Howe or Miss Hai'-
lowe would have said, "are such encroachers!'
For my part, I am body and soul with the
women ; and after a well-married couple, there
is nothing so beautiful in the world as the myth