The yellow book: an illustrated quarterly (1.1894)

By Max ßeerbohm 77

upon the stage with nothing to tinge the ivory of her cheeks. It
seemed so Strange, that neglect of Convention. To be behind
footlights and not rouged ! Yes, hers was a success of
contrast. She was like a daisy in the window at Solomons'. She
was delightful. And yet, such is the force of Convention, that
when last I saw her, playing in some burlesque at the Gaiety, her
fringe was curled and her pretty face rouged with the best of
them. And, if further need be to show the absurdity of having
called her Performance " a triumph of naturalness over the jaded
spirit of modernity," let us reflect that the little mimic was not a
real old-fashioned girl after all. She had none of that restless
naturalness that would seem to have characterised the girl of the
early Victorian days. She had no pretty ways—no smiles nor
blushes nor tremors. Possibly Demos could not have stood a pre-
sentment of girlishness unrestrained.

But with her grave insouciance, Miss Cissie Loftus had much
of the reserve that is oneof the factors of feminine perfection, and
to most comes only, as I have said, with artifice. Her features
played very, very slightly. And in truth, this may have been one
of the reasons of her great success. For expression is but too
often the ruin of a face ; and, since we cannot as yet so order the
circumstances of life that women shall never be betrayed into " an
unbecoming emotion," when the brünette shall never have cause
to blush, and the lady who looks well with parted lips be kept in a
permanent State of surprise, the safest way by far is to create, by
brush and pigments, artificial expressions for every face.

And this—say you ?—will make monotony ? You are mis-
taken, toto ccelo mistaken. When your mistress has wearied you
with one expression, then it will need but a few touches of that
pencil, a backward sweep of that brush, and lo, you will be
revelling in another. For though, of course, the painting of the

face