That last part gets way squicky to me though. shudder
Spike's Bitches 44: It's about the rules having changed.
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risqué (and frisqué), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
Elsie has a friend, Herbert, who is obviously trying to work up the courage to ask her to marry him. Herbert has a bad leg and walks with a crutch, and sometimes "the disease" comes back and brings more pain. (At first, when Herbert was described, it sounded as if he had broken his hip and it hadn't healed properly, but now that they keep mentioning "the disease," I have no idea what it is. My first thought was polio, but he was allowed to have visitors all the time when he was first sick, as long as they didn't tire him out too much, so that doesn't sound like polio at all. So I have no idea.) I'm kind of dreading what makes Elsie say she can't marry him.
Daddy says no?
I bet he dies in a convenient, yet heartrending, fashion.
they keep mentioning "the disease," I have no idea what it is.
Syphilis?
Well, so far, the scene has ended with this:
Herbert, it will all have to be just as papa says. I belong to him, and cannot give myself away without his permission.
Before that, she'd given him several reasons why she couldn't marry him, all of which were essentially "we're too young" -- she's 15, and he just turned 16.
they keep mentioning "the disease," I have no idea what it is.
Tuberculosis, I think.
I thought tuberculosis would make him weak, but not cause pain and weakness in a specific joint like that. (And they keep mentioning it as his "limb," because apparently you don't say "leg" in mixed company.)
I wonder if Herbert gets a miracle cure.
I'm slightly boggled by how closely the parent/child diction echoes contemporary B&D wording.
Before that, she'd given him several reasons why she couldn't marry him, all of which were essentially "we're too young" -- she's 15, and he just turned 16.
This is the most sensible thing she's said in the whole book.