260 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



should be held gracefully in the hand. If you are compelled to lay it 

 aside put it on the floor. 



Umbrellas should invariably be left in the hall. 



Never take favourite dogs into a drawing-room when you make a mor- 

 ning call. Their feet may be dusty, or they may bark at the sight of 

 strangers, or, being of too friendly a disposition, may take the liberty of 

 lying on a lady's gown, or jumping on the sofas and easy chairs. Where 

 your friend has a favourite cat already established before the fire, a battle 

 may ensue, and one or both of the pets be seriously hurt. Besides, many 

 persons have a constitutional antipathy to dogs, and others never allow 

 their own to be seen in the sitting-rooms. For all or any of those reasons, 

 a visitor has no right to inflict upon his friend the society of his dog as- 

 well as of himself. 



If, when you call upon a lady, you meet a lady visitor in her drawing- 

 room, you should rise when that lady takes her leave. 



If other visitors are announced, and you have already remained as long 

 as courtesy requires, wait till they are seated, and then rise from your 

 chair, take leave of your hostess, and bow politely to the newly-arrived 

 guests. You will, perhaps, be urged to remain, but, having once risen, it 

 is always best to go. There is always a certain air of gaucherie in resum- 

 ing your seat and repeating the ceremony of leave-taking. 



If you have occasion to look at your watch during a call, ask permis- 

 sion to do so, and apologize for it on the plea of other appointments. 



CONVEKSATION. 



Let your conversation be adapted as skilfully as may be to your com- 

 pany. Some men make a point of talking commonplace to all ladies 

 alike, as if a woman could only be a trifler. Others, on the contrary, for- 

 get in what respects the education of a lady differs from that of a gentle- 

 man, and commit the opposite error of conversing on topics with which 

 ladies are seldom acquainted. A woman of sense has as much right to be 

 annoyed by the one, as a lady of ordinary education by the other. You 

 cannot pay a finer compliment to a woman of refinement and esprit than 

 by leading the conversation into such a channel as may mark your appre- 

 ciation of her superior attainments. 



In talking with ladies of ordinary education, avoid political, scientific 

 or commercial topics, and choose only such subjects as are likely to be 

 of interest to them. 



Remember that people take more interest in their own affairs than in 

 anything else which you can name. If you wish your conversation to be 



