Makeup was something every actor had to wear. They were responsible for bringing to life the writer's imaginings, almost dreams and hallucinations. The backstage area of a theater was no different from anywhere else, filled with male and female servants attending to the actors.
Only half of these figures were real. Whether king, queen, prince, or princess, the other half consisted of actors wearing those costumes. When they saw a true personage, they still had to bow according to etiquette—and accept their "tokens of favor."
Even a less famous actress, if she had a dressing room of her own, would fill it with flowers. Sometimes, she might find a jewelry box suddenly appearing before her makeup mirror, containing a very expensive necklace.
She knew it had been sent by a notorious rake, but the problem was that she could not easily refuse him. He was like an annoying leech; once he latched on, he was not easy to shake off. He would also spread rumors and ruin a person's reputation until he found his next target.
But if she accepted his necklace, she became "his woman," and others would gossip behind her back all the same.
It was not easy for an actress to remain chaste. She lived amid "trouble and gossip," and the best solution was to leave that place as soon as possible.
Dorian Gray's fiancée had not lacked other suitors. He had paid off her debts and bought her clothes and accessories, yet she despised him for being vulgar and insufficiently gentlemanly. Her mother was more sensible. She knew he had spent no small sum on her daughter; how could it be settled so lightly, with a passing gust of "I don't love him"?
Nelson's Emma had once gone through something similar. Without the protection of marriage,