Although the novel was published anonymously, descriptions like this might have alerted
the astute reader to the fact that the author was a woman. Not that a man could not
have thought of such phrasing, but it is simply true that we might look far and wide
around contemporary novels before finding a man who actually would employ such a term
in like circumstances. The fact that Walton prizes "dauntless courage" (I:L2:1) may
look like a stereotyped masculinist attitude, but combining it with an emphasis on
gentleness of disposition shifts the accent considerably.