.. even though husbands kept mistresses, and were free to mingle in their “gentlemen’s clubs” where they could find a warm welcome among male friends, and often comfort in a woman’s.
If a women took a lover it was never to be made public because if it did become public knowledge she would be cut by society. If she divorced, she would have zero chance of acceptance in society again, although men easily moved on to the next relationship.
As a result, it was a time where relationships were quite artificial, for upper and merchant classes at least.
Until 1887 a woman could not own property, and even that which she inherited from family was turned over to her husband the day of their marriage. She herself was “owned” by her husband. In 1887 the Married Woman’s Property Act gave English women rights to her own property.
(Painting: Flirting in a Parisienne Salon in the 1880’s)