heart of the history and myth of the later nineteenth-century courtesan, because once having secured a means of support, her life was consecrated to the display of her fashionable posses- sions and ostentatious idleness. The characteristically luxurious way of life of the successful grande horizontals was thought to dazzle honest women to a menacing degree. Using the weapon of lavish, highly styled clothing, the courtesan could undermine the stability of the so- cial order by driving moral women to imitation. 6i