just passing on this, which a friend has sent me...
St Supercilia, born in Paris about the year 1400, was a maiden of
remarkable erudition, who steadfastly refused to marry anyone who could
not defeat her in open disputation. When the best scholars of all the
universities in Europe had tried and failed, her unworthy father
brutally commanded her to accept the hand of a man who, though
virtuous, sensible, and of good estate, knew only six languages and was
weak in mathematics. At this, the outraged saint raised her eyebrows so
high that they lifted her right off her feet and out through a
top-storey window, whence she was last seen floating away in a northerly
direction.
Dorothy L Sayers, "St Supercilia", Pantheon Papers.
[unknown to me till now - stephen leacockish perhaps or just old Punch?]
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