The bloody sheet is then shown to the neighborhood as proof of virginity "deflowering". McCarron/Eula fight off a group of local boys determined to keep McCarron from deflowering Eula. Thus "Sir Hugh" is in his opinion a "symbolic story", of temptation and sexual deflowering. Deflowering is a form of pruning that consists of removing flowers before they develop. Instead of deflowering her, he traded clothes with her, allowing Antonina to escape. Deflowering is usually performed on fruit-forming and seed-forming shrubs and trees in their first year.