Status Updates From Fraud

She remembered Baudelaire’s remark that he found it difficult to breathe when faced with a portrait by Ingres: he felt as though the oxygen had been sucked out of the atmosphere. So insistent were the candid oval eyes that she could almost sense the processes behind them: discreet gurglings and shiftings in those flawless bodies.


Comtesse d'Haussonville

Gone were the days when men preferred women to be compliant and passive, born to flatter and to praise. At least they might still want these rewards, but they were being trained not to expect them.
…….
She had never been a convivial woman, even when she was much younger, and eventually had realized with something like relief that it was too late for her to change.