If this angle is as much as thirty-five degrees, the attraction becomes acute.

For the position of the feet upon the ground determines the whole carriage of the body, and it results that provincial women, since they wear low heels, are not very attractive, and preserve their virtue with ease." These conclusions were not generally accepted.

It was objected that under the influence of English and American fashions, low heels had been introduced generally without producing the results attributed to them by the learned Professor; moreover, it was said that the difference he pretended to establish between the morals of the metropolis and those of the provinces is perhaps illusory, and that if it exists, it is apparently due to the fact that great cities offer more advantages and facilities for love than small towns provide.

However that may be, the provinces began to murmur against the Prime Minister, and to raise a scandal.

This was not yet a danger, but there was a possibility that it might become one.
For the moment the peril was nowhere and yet everywhere.