Yvonne Goes to York Read Online Free PDF

Hannah’smatchmaking pulses quickened. ‘You must find, Miss Grenier,’ said Hannah, now anxious to keep Yvonne talking, ‘that there are great differences between the English misses and the French.’
    ‘A very great deal, yes.’
    ‘Tell us,’ urged the marquis.
    ‘The English misses are healthier, being addicted to riding and to walking. I teach some ladies French, and so have had the chance to observe their ways closely. I was surprised to find, for example, that it is rare to come across a fashion journal in any of the great houses. And the magazines they do read! No fiction, no chatty column of theatrical gossip, no fashion notes, none of the things you would find in a French journal. Instead, in one magazine for ladies, there was an article on education in the workhouses, one on slavery in America and its influence on Great Britain, and one on the improvement of nurses in agricultural districts. So the English misses are more intelligent. But they do not know how to use this intelligence. No one teaches them the art of conversation. Nor do they know how to coquette.’ Yvonne raised her fan and flicked it to and fro and then flirted over it with her eyes at Monsieur Petit, who stared at her angrily.
    ‘Go on,’ said the marquis. ‘So young and so wise. You intrigue me.’
    ‘Everyone pays lip-service to love in this country,’ went on Yvonne, ‘and so husband-hunting is very vulgar. A rich and noble man is much run after. Too effusively welcomed, flattered, and provoked, he becomes cautious and is constantly on his guard. It is not so in France. Girls are kept under too much restraint to take the initiative; in my country, the game never turns hunter.’
    ‘But English women are faithful,’ said Hannah. ‘Marriage is a respected and noble institution. Someone once told me he had heard one Frenchman say casually to another, “I hear your wife has taken a lover.” Things are managed better here.’
    ‘I do not think so,’ said Yvonne with a quaint old-fashioned air. ‘Your English mees has much more freedom before marriage than her French equivalent. But after marriage – and here I speak of the bourgeoisie , not of the lords and ladies – the husband is the head of the household and his wife must be quiet and submissive. They have families of eighteen children.’ She raised her hands. ‘And without shame!’
    ‘Miss Grenier!’ Hannah looked shocked.
    ‘You frown then on legalized lust,’ teased the marquis. ‘Eighteen times is hardly an orgy.’
    Yvonne blushed. ‘Forgive me. I am too outspoken and it is not fair of you, milord, to underline that fact with coarse remarks.’
    ‘I humbly beg your pardon,’ said the marquis, his eyes dancing. ‘You are about to tell us they organize things better in France.’
    ‘Yes,’ said Yvonne seriously. ‘For there the husband will discuss his business at all times with his wife. Here, she is kept in such ignorance so that, should he die, she has no means of taking up the reins of business herself.’
    ‘Perhaps Englishwomen should marry French husbands ,’ jeered Monsieur Petit.
    She gave him a cool look. ‘It does not always answer, for Englishwomen in business do not know how to charm. There is a French innkeeper at Calais with an English wife. He is all charm and has great interest in his customers, going from table to table to see they have everything they need. But the English wife! Ma foi ! As the guests get up to leave, she calls out in execrable French, “ Havez vo’ payez ?” No ease of manner. No elegance.’
    ‘We are nonetheless,’ said Hannah stiffly, ‘a very moral people.’
    ‘On the surface,’ sighed Yvonne. ‘Very moral. Even your novels read like religious tracts. The fallen woman is always ugly and comes to a hard end, which is not always the case. All is clean and decent on the surface, but the Englishman in his cups can turn beast. Look only at the thousands of prostitutes who throng the streets of London, the