Whispering is always rude. Whispering and giggling at the same time have
no place in good society. Everything that shows lack of courtesy toward
others is rude.
If you would be thought a person of refinement, don't nudge or pat or
finger people. Don't hold hands or walk arm-about-waist in public. Never
put your hand on a man, except in dancing and in taking his arm if he is
usher at a wedding or your partner for dinner or supper. Don't allow
anyone to paw you. Don't hang on anyone for support, and don't stand or
walk with your chest held in, and your hips forward, in imitation of a
reversed letter S.
Don't walk across a ballroom floor swinging your arms. Don't talk or laugh
loud enough to attract attention, and on no account force yourself to
laugh. Nothing is flatter than laughter that is lacking in mirth. If you
only laugh because something is irresistibly funny, the chances are your
laugh will be irresistible too. In the same way a smile should be
spontaneous, because you _feel_ happy and pleasant; nothing has less
allure than a mechanical grimace, as though you were trying to imitate a
tooth-paste advertisement.
=WHERE ARE THE "BELLES" OF YESTERDAY?=
In olden days and until a comparatively short while ago, a young girl's
social success was invariably measured by her popularity in a ballroom. It
was the girl who had the most partners, who least frequently sat "against
the wall," who carried home the greatest quantity of the baubles known as
"favors," who was that evening's and usually the season's belle.
But to-day although ballroom popularity is still important as a test by
which a young girl's success is measured, it is by no means the beginning
and end that it used to be.
As repeated several times in this book, the day of the belle is past;
beaux belong to the past too. To-day is the day of woman's equality with
man, and if in proving her equality she has come down from a pedestal, her
pedestal was perhaps a theatrical "property" at best and not to be
compared for solid satisfaction with the level ground of the entirely real
position she now occupies.
A girl's popularity in a ballroom is of importance to be sure, but not
greatly more so than the dancing popularity of a youth.
There was a time when "wall-flowers" went to balls night after night where
they either sat beside a chaperon or spent the evening in the
dressing-room in tears. To-day a young girl who finds she is not a
ballroom success avoids ballrooms and seeks her success otherwhere. She
does not sit in a corner and hope against hope that her "luck will turn"
and that Prince Charming will surely some evening discover her. She sizes
up the situation exactly as a boy might size up his own chances to "make"
the crew or the football team.
=TO-DAY'S SPECIALISTS IN SUCCESS=
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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