She wore tight corsets to give her a teeny waist - I helped her lace them up - but they had the effect of causing her to faint. Mom called it the vapors and said it was a sign of her high breeding and delicate nature. I thought it was a sign that the corset made it hard to breathe.

Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel (ed. Simon and Schuster, 2010) - ISBN: 9781416586296