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Here the narrator shifts the focus to the sensual female body adorned by this embroidery, closely linking these two sites of femininity:Desde luego fuí obligado a ver algo más que la tela bordada! y ella me dijo:Here the narrator represents Sáenz as the object of the male gaze. Since throughout his Memorias Boussingault establishes himself as a heterosexual male (revealed in the sexual overtones of his many anecdotes about women), his tongue-in-cheek comment about Manuela's 'well-made' legs makes her the object of his sexual desire tiffany bangles on sale and genders her as feminine. In a twist, however, Manuela perverts - or subverts - this site of feminine domestic activity (the embroidery) by using it to seize agency in this exchange; rather than being a passive object merely adorned by the needlework, she instigates the flirtatious encounter, using the otherwise innocuous embroidery as a pretence to reveal (rather than conceal) the body that by social standards should be kept hidden under long skirts and within the private space of the home. By seizing agency in the encounter, she transgresses the norms of modesty and passivity assigned to proper ladies of her social class.

The narrator further accuses Sáenz of (mis)using her female body space by recalling her irreverence towards the central axis of domesticity: maternity. He recalls that when he visited her one morning, she received him in her bedroom, where he witnessed what he calls 'una escena aterradora' involving Sáenz and her pet bear cub: 'el oso estaba tiffany bracelets on sale tendido sobre su ama, con sus horribles garras posadas sobre sus senos. Al verme entrar, Manuelita me dijo con gran calma: - "Don Juan, vaya a la cocina y traiga un jarro de leche que colocará al pie de la cama:

este diablo de oso no quiere dejarme"' (117). The narrator's horror at this scene is underpinned by the cultural association between the female body (particularly the breasts) and motherhood, nurturing, alimentation and wholesomeness. From the narrator's perspective, what at first appears to be an act of violence (the placing of sharp claws atop soft breasts) becomes an act of perversion when the immodest victim remains notably not alarmed. The narrator assumes the masculine role of protector who restores order when he ties up the tiffany Pendants on sale bear and orders that it be shot (117).