28. Victorians Developed Secret Romance Codes to Flirt
Escort cards cost about a penny each, so young Victorian men – especially those who cast their net as wide as possible – often went for a nineteenth-century kind of romance recycling. If the object if their affection was not interested, some cards asked that they be returned. If she was interested enough to explore the possibility of taking it further to see how it goes, Victorians developed a romance code between men and women, to surreptitiously communicate without alerting a young woman’s chaperone.
For example, different winks, based on their number, which eye was used, and the kind of eye motion, could mean different things, from compliments to warnings, to declarations of love or declamations of hatred. It all seems pretty tame by modern standards, but at the time, Victorian parents were greatly alarmed about those kinds of secret communications. They feared, often rightly, that the wrong kind of man with the wrong kind of intentions could lead an innocent young woman astray.