Elizabeth was daily charmed by the manners of the French men, “They are always raising their hats to anyone met on the road, or giving some other expression of good-will. I am not nearly so complimentary about the affectionate way in which the French men greet one another,” she continued. “To my English way of thinking, it seems excessively cordial the way the men embrace one another and kiss. However, this last peculiarity in habit is, however, not the greatest of my astonishments thus far along our road; Mr. Darcy, have you not observed the custom here-abouts of the farm labour being done entirely by women?” The country women were sowing, hoeing, bundling stalks, mowing the early crops, reaping, manuring, plowing, drawing carts, fetching water, tending to the livestock, and all like labour, which, in England, would have been done by men, with the exception of the universal employment at harvest of both sexes, children, the aged—all those able to lend their hands to the task.

“Whilst their women are labouring to provide for their entire subsistence,” she continued, “the French men sit under the trees at the side of the field, idly smoaking, drinking wine, and watching their women-folk at work. The old French expression of chivalry, ‘Dieu, le Roi, les Dames’ seems entirely malapropos.

“Most unaccountably, the women seem very happy to be thus employed, singing and talking; as soon as they hear anyone on the road, they immediately leave off their labours, calling greetings and waving, and continuing to watch the carriages as long as they are in sight. The men take as little notice of what is passing along the road, as they do of the exertions of their women.”

“I could more easily countenance such a reversal of labour, if the men were at some useful occupation, instead of lounging about under the trees. However, equally incongruous—to my notion of justice—is the mismanagement of men at the various tasks that normally fall to the lot of housemaids and chamber-maids: carelessly making up the beds, and doing what inconsequential cleaning is committed upon the premises. The men might be more effectively employed in the fields, and we might have clean rooms and properly made-up beds, were the situation reversed; having said as much—looking at the men sitting idly by—the result may be that the women undertake the labour within and without of doors, and the men do nothing at all,” said Mr. Darcy.

“Indeed,” began Elizabeth, “it seems very hard that the women should be subject to the drudgery of hard labour whilst the men sit nearby. The fields appear to be in good order and productive under the care of the women. Perhaps, Husband, women are not so incapable in the agricultural arts as is generally believed.”