Dubious insights

I just reread Georgette Heyer's Cotillion, and I was struck by the similarity between Freddy Standen and Elle from "Legally Blonde."

No, really! In both cases, you're introduced to them as people who take great -- you might say obsessive -- care of their bodies, their clothes, and their appearance, and initially you read that as vanity. But over the course of the story, it becomes clear that they are people who take care of everything.

Imagine if they met! Elle probably knows some fabulous way to put a mirrorlike shine on a gentleman's topboots, and if Freddy can fold a Regency neckcloth he can probably French braid like nobody's business.