“Mingle, but don’t put yourself forward,” Bidlow says before assigning the teenage giant Primrose to a souvenir photo booth. In the face of Maladie’s murderous run, one object of the party is to rehabilitate the reputation of the touched - “a few attractive girls showing off their turns,” dialed down to a volume that London’s haute monde finds palatable. Guests will include “men of influence with wives of actual influence,” which is exactly the kind of vaguely feminist drivel The Nevers so far specializes in. See, the champion of the touched is giving a charity fête in her stately home, and she’s come in search of entertainment to complement the petit fours. Orphanage benefactor Lavinia Bidlow pulls strings to see Mundi’s warrant revoked, but her heroic turn is followed up with a demeaning request. Romaulda’s while the wards are still in bed, but all they turn up is the indignation of the women who run the place. Inspector Frank Mundi and his men start tossing dorms at St. Maladie is touched naturally every touched person is suspect. Maladie remains on the loose after her showdown with Amalia at the opera, and the bobbies are no closer to finding her or Mary, the singer she abducted. Victorian England, in which discussion of sex was verboten and women’s bodies were mysterious even to themselves, paradoxically loved a freak show. Barnum’s Hall of Human Curiosities played Buckingham Palace Queen Victoria reportedly died when Thumb unsheathed his itty-bitty sword to stage-fight her royal spaniel. Barnum arrived in England with the little person General Tom Thumb in 1844, the people went nuts.
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