Oh to be a dashing Victorian gentleman with brooding looks, a finely waxed moustache, an imperious top hat and a pair of magnificently flaring nostrils!
How the dainty, young maids of the day would modestly lower their eyes and suffer a delicate blush as i stood proudly before them, my hands clasped behind my back, looking stern and vaguely tempestuous while my nostrils flared solely for their benefit.
It appears to be a lost art nowadays but in times gone by, a gentleman could flutter the hearts of the gentler sex merely by a discreetly twitched eyebrow, a twirl of the moustache or a meaningful expression of suppressed passion with the afforementioned nostrils.
The initial courtship of a fine, upstanding, eligible male with a heaving-bosomed young female could either flourish or wither away on the strength of his accomplishments in these singular arts, such was the importance placed upon their role in the masculine armoury of romance.
To the untrained eye, the couple stand silently apart in the drawing room, oblivious to each others' presence; but beneath the surface rages a torrent of lust, turbulent emotion and untamed desire. Bodices straining furiously, corsets creaking with inflamed passion and a smouldering beneath the petticoats which threatens a terrifying blaze at any moment.
And when my lady seemed on the very verge of spontaneous combustion, i would play my trump card with aplomb: a practised hand would seek out my gold watch-chain and draw forth my majestic timepiece, dangling it suggestively while she fanned herself into an absolute lather.
you were so right....ahem.....I'm thinking of various particularly marvelous flaring nostrils...might have to compile a set of pics to illustrate the point so to speak.....//pinched// nostrils can be rather exciting too....the most pinched nostrils I can think of were that Eomer blokes in Lord of The Rings.....and I'd say....Faramirs were permanently flaring........
could be one of those //little// books some people keep in their toilets for when they are um....sitting there thinking about things......(not that I do of course! *she said loftily* )
much tossing and turning restlessly all night I'd say! 
smelling salts or sal volatile urgently required and the frantic flapping of a large ostrich feather fan.......