Page:Edward Prime-Stevenson - The Intersexes.djvu/160

 has always disliked female work, female society, female clothing; preferring the life and society, of boys and men in every way. She has always wished that she were "really a man", the more as her physique has become increasingly masculine with her maturing. In the convent she was much the object of remarks on account of her mannish features and figure, and because of strongly expressed desires to be as unfeminine as possible. She made up her mind that as soon at she could do so, she would "try to be a man". She took great pains to observe carefully the ways of masculinity in general and even has taken lessons in manly deportment from an actor, under a pretext of turning to the stage. She grew up, aside from school and the convent, much alone; has few relatives, and so has always been rather on a free footing toward society. She came into a considerable fortune from her parents, on her majority; and during visits to friends, at hotels, in the summers, and so on, she became set on the idea of completely transforming her outward life to that of a man. A friend of hers had done this same thing with perfect success, and now lives in an English city as a man, not suspected to be anything else. But just when "Mr. Z—" was preparing to make such a change, including a residence abroad, she met a gentleman whom she very greatly admired intellectually; and as to his moral character, and who was also of considerable wealth. He fell in love with her, and she decided to marry. But she frankly told me that she not had the least physical attraction to her betrothed though she could not say that she had had distinct horror corporis. She was in fact rather curious of what, would be her physical emotionality toward married life. Of her vita sexualis I will make some further note, presently as it is of importance in so strange a case. She accordingly married Mr. K—, and though herself indifferent (she found herself quite unmoved by sexual intercourse, such as it was, between them) their relations in this respect were "happy