Not only they do not walk abroad;
they do not walk at home; everything is carried to and from them; they
do not lift hand or foot. The consequence is that they have very small
hands and feet; Gautier, who seems to have grown tired when he reached
Seville, and has comparatively little to say of it, says that a child
may hold a Sevillian lady's foot in its hand; he does not say he saw it
done. What is true is that no child could begin to clasp with both hands
the waist of an average Sevillian lady. But here again the rule has its
exceptions and will probably have more. Not only is the English
queen-consort stimulating the Andalusian girls to play tennis by her
example when she comes to Seville, but it has somehow become the fashion
for ladies of all ages to leave their carriages in the Delicias and walk
up and down; we saw at least a dozen doing it.
Whatever flirting and intriguing goes on, the public sees nothing of it.
In the street there is no gleam of sheep's-eying or any manner of
indecorum. The women look sensible and good, and I should say the same
of the men; the stranger's experience must have been more unfortunate
than mine if he has had any unkindness from them.
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