In a later scene, Dido says to Elizabeth, “He laid his hands on me, Bet, in a most ungentlemanly fashion.” It would be most ungentlemanly of me not to respect the lady's wishes to be circumspect and to ask for more details. So I won't.
shareConsidering the acrobatics needed to get under a woman's dress at the time, I doubt it went that far but he certainly groped her.
For every lie I unlearn I learn something new - Ani Difranco
with the social conventions of the day, any physical contact between a man and an unmarried woman was scandalous (see Dido's reaction when Mr Davinier put his hand on hers) - so, while getting under her skirt would have been all but impossible, pushing his hand between her legs over her dress would have been easy and still caused Dido to say he touched her in a most ungentlemanly fashion.
have you tried that crazy wrap thing?! http://erinleighmckenzie.myitworks.com
With all those layers he wouldn't have been able to get under her dress, while still standing upright.
I think he punched her in the stomach. But also, during that time you would never touch a lady unless you were given permission to.
"He touched her...in the most ungentlemanly fashion." Meaning he manhandled her. She was a sheltered girl and it was traumatic either way. Given his earlier comments about "sampling" third world women in the West Indies, it's pretty obvious what he tried to do. He didn't think she had rights. Good thing she didn't marry the brother, I think the implication is that he would have gone further if he had access to do so. I hated this part of the movie but I understand that some men felt that way back then.
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