the shackles of social rules.

She watched him walk away. The further he went, the stronger the feeling of regret she felt. But something about this time was different. Although she had said very little – as had been the case almost always – she realised now it was not because she was shy. She had words to say; she could feel them at the base of her throat, she could hear them in her mind. Oh, how much did she have to, want to, say! No, the problem was not shyness, it was an uncertainty in the appropriateness of what she most desired to express. It was therefore safer never to say anything than to verbalise a thought that, although sprouting from a loving source, would be regarded as wrong. She was not shy; but she was shackled by unspoken social rules.