Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/164

156 be the case, if some other friend, whose invitation she felt compelled to decline, were to offer a like attention.

If a young lady is fond of riding on horseback, and among her male acquaintances are those who are equally fond of the healthful exercise, there will be no impropriety in her accepting an invitation to ride, if one or more young ladies are to be of the company. But, in doing so, she should make it a rule always to have the horse she is to ride ordered from the stable by a servant, at her own or father’s expense. It may so happen that the circumstances of a young lady’s family are such, that the hire of a horse, even occasionally, is a matter of outlay that cannot be afforded. Where this is the case, she ought by all means to deny herself the gratification of riding out, rather than permit any young man, not her accepted lover, to bear the expense.

We need hardly refer to the outrageous want of all decent respect for herself, that would prompt a young lady to invite, by adroit references to an approaching concert, or to her extreme fondness for horseback exercise, a young man to be at the cost of gratifying the desire she feels to participate in these, or in any other pleasures. And yet such things are of too frequent occurrence, and among those who