The Magnolia Palace

“‘Well, aren’t you a smart one?’ He didn’t mean it as a compliment.”

When the police officer questions Lillian about how she knew Mrs. Watkins was dead, she replies that he spoke of Mrs. Watkins in the past tense; this is his response. Lillian does show herself to be smart, but because she is a woman, her intelligence is not a characteristic that he appreciates. This early scene establishes Society’s View of a Woman’s Place as a prominent theme of the novel.

“Above a drop-front secretary desk hung a portrait of a little girl with a strangely guarded expression, as if she didn’t trust whoever was in the room with her.”

Veronica has found the portrait of Martha in Mrs. Frick’s bedroom. From the moment she enters the Frick mansion, Veronica is interested in her surroundings; she hoped to study history at university. In addition, this portrait provides a connection to the 1919 storyline, in which the reader will learn the whole story of Martha.

“Lillian was not a commercial product, neither a Gibson girl nor a Ziegfeld girl. She was the vision of perfect woman, the embodiment of beauty. An angel. ‘Angelica.’ Her mother came up with Lillian’s model name that same session. ‘We’ll call you Angelica.’ Lillian knew Kitty had done so to avoid any detection by her family back in Newport of their rather unorthodox venture, and the moniker stuck.”

As an artists’ model, Lillian is in a different category than Gibson girls, models who represented the current American feminine ideal, and Ziegfeld girls, showgirls for Ziegfield’s Follies. Kitty’s recognition of the double standard that all of these women are subjected to leads her to the idea of a pseudonym for Lillian—a name that will set her apart from other models, protecting Lillian from the shame that accompanies the career.