She made her debut as an actress shortly before her marriage and continued on the London stage for perhaps two years after her separation, taking men’s parts at least half the time. Then apparently she went on the boards in her father’s favorite role and one he had made famous, Lord Foppington in _The Careless Husband_. Perhaps this fact led Cibber to cut off financial support and to spoil her chances with all London producers. More likely it was her travesty of his acting that enraged him, for his vanity was morbid and she inherited his wicked and heartless wit. As long as her mother lived she was sure of some funds, but death soon closed that channel and she was driven to a variety of shifts that would have been tragic had she been capable of taking anything very tragically. These experiences, too, are diverting, but only the most significant can be touched on here. For a time she ran a grocer shop in London, living meanwhile with a young widow who lent her money for her business. Later, when arrested for debt, she was saved by contributions from women, once from a Mrs. Elizabeth Careless whose name suggests her profession, and again from “all the ladies who kept coffee houses in and about Covent Garden ... for the relief of poor Sir Charles, as they were pleased to stile me.”[4] Twice women lost their hearts to her and she was forced to reveal her sex, but her mere word was not sufficient. In the first case we are not told how she managed to be convincing. In the second, she was working as a waiter, and her inamorata came to Charlotte’s room to give her the lie, saying she “could never have made advances to one of her own sect [sic].” When Charlotte asked if she was sure she “understood what she meant,” it led to a physical brawl so violent as to cost Charlotte her position.