It simply shocks them.

They feel instinctively that it is the one which escapes best the domination of feminine influences.

The dear girls were exchanging jeering remarks about "lazy uncle Roderick" openly, in her indulgent hearing.

And it was so strange, she told me, because as a boy he was anything but indolent.
On the contrary.

Always active.
I remarked that a man of thirty-five was no longer a boy.