Ah, I had forgotten about the particular expectations upon young women when I wrote that – but I applaud you for desiring to make yourself useful in the world in spite of what they think. I don’t think nearly enough people care about being useful in the world, for that matter, or at least not the people I know. And my sister might suffer more than I from that expectation – I have found some freedom to follow my interests – but I admit my parents can be much the same, rather narrow-minded when it comes to our prospects in life. (You would think we were pawns on a chessboard, sometimes; they rarely seem to realise we might actually have minds of our own.)

But on the topic of gender, I hope this does not rule out the prospect of our adventuring together? I cannot recall if you specified a preferred gender of companion in your advertisement, so if you were looking for another young lady to accompany you I apologise for not being one, and for my obvious presumption. (I do, however, retain the functionality of all my limbs, and am not averse to a fast-paced jaunt.)

The East! For my part, I have the opposite problem: plenty of experience of the continent, but depressingly little of the rest of the world – I would be thrilled to explore the East, or to venture across America someday.

I am not sure that I would know much what to do if I encountered a wild animal, either – so if we are still to meet up for a real adventure, it might be in our best interests not to begin with that, or we might well both end up with missing limbs.

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