Posted by TD on August 30, 1997 at 18:11:49:
In reply to During the engagement posted by Madelien on August 27, 1997 at 18:44:26
] What are couples allowed to do during their engagement? I
] thougth the man only kissed the hand of their fiancée, and that they adressed each other with sir and madam. But when I
] read some of the story in the writer's guild, well yeah.. I don't need to explain myself, do I?
] Can anyone explain some of this to me?
I found this quote in a book entitled "Readings on Jane Austen". It is from a letter Jane wrote to her sister, Casandra about a man named Tom Lefroy that Jane had a flirtation with, possibly more than that? The quote is,
" I am almost afraid to tell you how my Irish friend and I behaved. Imagine to yourself everything most profligate and shocking in the way of dancing and sitting down together.....
In another letter she says she has given up all her other admirers " as I mean to confine myself in the future to Mr Tom Lefroy , for whom I do not care a sixpence."
So perhaps things were more liberal between couples than is generally believed, especially if they were engaged.
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