“You can,” the grizzled physician said. “But not by caking your face with this powder, and smearing your lips with carnelian. Finishing schools should teach their young ladies the chemical content of their make-up, but not one will own up to its being slow death.”
“How do you know that?” Miss Notley asked. “Without my paint, I shall be plain, ordinary.”
“Perhaps,” said Dr. Alton, “but I believe you will feel better.”
Shortly a maid brought in a basin of warm water and a face cloth. “If you will do the honors, please, Mrs. Swinton,” the physician asked.
Evelyn started to sponge the powder and paint away from Miss Notley’s face, but the powder was thickly caked, and did not readily yield to the water. “Perhaps a little oil to loosen it?” Evelyn suggested.
So it was that they sent down to the kitchen in a short while, and a small tub of new butter was sent up, along with a cup of buttermilk that Mayson suggested as a means to sooth Miss Notley’s skin. For some time, Evelyn alternated using the butter to remove the caked-on paint and using the warm water with a little soap to remove the butter residue, and a gentle rub with the buttermilk on irritated areas.
After a time, Miss Notley's natural face was revealed.
She looked younger without the powder and paint, and a little scared, as if she was not sure what this unveiling would do to her.
“Why, you are quite lovely,” said the Duchess. “I had no idea that powder and paint could create so much trouble. I have no such problems because I gave up the bother some time ago, and Mrs. Swinton has never used any.”
“Does this mean,” Lady Carletane asked, “that I should also give up my powder and rouge?”
“It would be a blessing for your health,” the physician said. “It is little known but many of the paints and powders that are brought from the Orient are filled with poisons. So are some of those that are made in our local shops, as well. Has your physician also prescribed a tonic and perhaps eye drops?”
“Well, yes,” Miss Notley admitted.
“You must cease taking all those things and using the drops right away.”
“But my eyes will look little and piggy,” she protested.
“Better little and piggy than blind,” the physician intoned. “I have seen it far too often. A little belladonna in the eye and the pupil opens wide, making the ladies look lovely. But the eye is a gateway to more than the soul. It is a very sad thing, but I have seen more than one corpse brought in for dissection at the college where this was the cause of death.”
Lady Carletane gasped. “You cannot mean that!” she said.
“I am afraid I do,” he replied soberly. “Many of the London physicians believe that they can dose their patients with minute amounts of poison to make their system stronger, allowing it to build up an immunity. But it is rarely effective, and is more likely to carry the patient off sooner rather than later.”
Miss Notley sat silent, as if stricken dumb. Lady Carletane turned to the Duchess. “Surely he cannot mean that? This man is no better than a quack. I am taking my daughter home immediately.”
The Duchess shrugged. “I am sorry you feel that way, Lady Carletane. I am even sorrier for Blanche, who is suffering under your physician’s regimen. I, on the other hand, have never felt so young in years.”
“You! You scarcely move out of your chair,” Lady Carletane folded in her lips to keep from saying more. She breathed hard once or twice through her nose, then turned to her daughter. “Come, Blanche. We are going home.”
The Duchess looked horrified. “How can you simply ignore this physician’s good advice?”
But Lady Carletane hustled her daughter out the door, with scarcely a backward glance.
The Duchess relaxed back against her cushions, looking exhausted and disappointed. “I never expected her to take it that way,” she said.
“You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink,” the physician said, sententiously.
The Duchess looked over at Evelyn. “I meant it for the very best. How could this go so wrong?”
“Lady Carletane is the one who took offense, Your Grace. But Blanche heard the message. Perhaps it will do some good.”
The Duchess sighed. “Is use of this paint and powder truly that dangerous?” she asked the physician.
Dr. Alton sighed. “More than you can possibly know. If he has also prescribed something to make her skin look pale and fine, as well as drops to enlarge the pupils of her eyes, she could be in grave danger. She is your son’s intended?”
“Yes,” the Duchess said. “We were just looking over patterns for her wedding gown.”
“Then mark my words, if he intends to have a living wife, he will do his very best to dissuade her from these practices lest he become a widower within months of being wed.”