You must, I murmured to myself, and then my knees buckled. Lying on the floor, with the carved panels of the ceiling flickering dimly above, I found myself thinking that I had always heretofore assumed that the tendency of eighteenth-century ladies to swoon was due to tight stays; now I rather thought it might be due to the idiocy of eighteenth-century men.
The narrator reflects on a moment of vulnerability, feeling overwhelmed as they collapse to the ground. In this moment, their thoughts drift to the past, contemplating the reasons behind women in the eighteenth century swooning, something they had previously attributed to restrictive clothing.
However, they begin to reconsider this belief, jokingly suggesting that the behavior might instead stem from the foolishness of the men from that era. This highlights a shift in perspective, revealing how personal experiences can challenge long-held assumptions about historical gender dynamics.
