SOCIAL RESPECT.--In mixed companies with your equals (for in mixed companies all people are to a certain degree equal) greater ease and liberty are allowed; but they too have their bounds within _bienséance_. There is a social respect necessary; you may start your own subject of conversation with modesty, taking great care, however, _de ne jamais parler de cordes dans la maison d’un pendu_. Your words, gestures, and attitudes have a greater degree of latitude, though by no means an unbounded one. You may have your hands in your pockets, take snuff, sit, stand, or occasionally walk, as you like; but I believe you would not think it very _bienséant_ to whistle, put on your hat, loosen your garters or your buckles, lie down upon a couch, or go to bed, and welter in an easy chair. These are negligences and freedoms which one can only take when quite alone; they are injurious to superiors, shocking and offensive to equals, brutal and insulting to inferiors. That easiness of carriage and behavior, which is exceedingly engaging, widely differs from negligence and inattention, and by no means implies that one may do whatever one pleases. [_Same date._] RESPECT DUE TO WOMAN.--To women you should always address yourself with great outward respect and attention, whatever you feel inwardly; their sex is by long prescription entitled to it; and it is among the duties of _bienséance_; at the same time that respect is very properly, and very agreeably, mixed with a degree of _enjouement_, if you have it; but then, that _badinage_ must either directly or indirectly tend to their praise, and even not be liable to a malicious construction to their disadvantage. But here, too, great attention must be had to the difference of age, rank, and situation. A _maréchale_ of fifty must not be played with like a young coquette of fifteen; respect and _serious enjouement_, if I may couple those two words, must be used with the former, and mere _badinage, zesté même d’un peu de polissonerie_, is pardonable with the latter. [_Same date._] HORSE-LAUGHTER.--Loud laughter is extremely inconsistent with _les bienséances_, as it is only the illiberal and noisy testimony of the joy of the mob, at some very silly thing. A gentleman is often seen, but very seldom heard, to laugh. Nothing is more contrary to _les bienséances_ than horse-play, or _jeux de main_ of any kind whatever, and has often very serious, sometimes very fatal consequences. Romping, struggling, throwing things at one another’s head, are the becoming pleasantries of the mob, but degrade a gentleman; _giuoco di mano, giuoco di villano_, is a very true saying, among the few true sayings of the Italians.