The Young Woman’s Guide

Now it is precisely this sort of refusal, direct or implied, in a thousand cases which might be named, which brings down evil, not only upon those who make it, but upon others. They mean no, perhaps; and yet it is not certain that the decision is–like the laws of the Medea and Persians–irrevocable. Something in the tone, or manner, or both combined, leaves room to hope for success in time to come. The woman who deliberates, is lost, we are told: and is it not so? Do not many who say no with hesitancy, still retain the power and the disposition to deliberate? And is it not so understood?