Thursday, May 09, 2013

'How to indicate interest in a gentleman wihtout seeming forward.'

Miss Bingley: 'I am afraid you do not like your pen. Let me mend it for you. I mend pens remarkably well.'
Mr Darcy: 'Thank you - but I always mend my own.'

Interaction between unmaried persons of the opposite sex was seriously proscribed and a young lady had to use all her wiles to make her feelings known.
'Flattering the gentleman in question is essential - listen to his every word and agree with him on all subjects. If he disagrees with you - change your opinion at once and make him believe that you hold a similar opinion to him.'
Nothing new here! Maybe girls today could follow this advice and find it helpful.
'Talk about him to his relatives. They might understand your feelings and pass the infromation on to him.'
I'm sure this works today.
'Offer to perform small services for the object of your affections.' Mending his pen is one small step to mending his stockings.
Can't see today's young women offering to iron his shirts or wash his boxers.
'If the gentlemen you desire is reading a book, take up the second volume, if playing piquet - immediately offer to make up the table. If he wishes to take a stroll declare that it is also time for your daily perambulation around the shrubbery.'
I suppose modern young women might go as far to pretend an interest in football/darts/snooker - but don't think they would take it this far.

I'm delighted to tell you that I have two boxsets -The Duke Series Boxset one & two -  available on Kindle at £1.99. This is my latest single title - another great cover from Jane Dixon-Smith.
New book - £0.99 Amazon.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

" - change your opinion at once and make him believe that you hold a similar opinion to him"

Right. Because men's opinions are more valid and women shouldn't have opinions of their own. Wtf. Did you seriously just say " Maybe girls today could follow this advice"? That's terrible, misogynistic advice. I'm ashamed to be a follower of this blog.

Or maybe there was some British dry humor and irony in this post that passed me by.

Fenella J Miller said...

Of course it wasn't meant seriously - sorry if you didn't see the humour in my comment. US readers sometimes have this problem with British writers.

Elizabeth Hawksley said...

On the other hand, Elizabeth Bennet manages to catch Darcy's interest by disagreeing with him!

And Marianne Dashwood agrees with everything Willoughby says - and look what happened!