When one’s pardon is asked for some slight inattention, an inclination of the head and a smile is the best answer.
The words “gentleman friend” and “lady friend” have been so vulgarized that most well-bred women now say “man friend” or “woman friend,” it being taken for granted that they number among their friends only ladies and gentlemen.
Custom never condones liberties, no matter how slight, between young men and women.
When a woman is visiting, any acquaintance who should call upon her should also ask for her hostess, and if she is absent leave a card for her.
It is considered very bad taste for a young girl to address a man with whom her acquaintance is but slight by his Christian name.
No young man has any right to spend the entire afternoon and evening every Sunday at one particular house, to the annoyance of an entire family, who do not like to make him conscious of the fact that they consider him a bore.
When a young man is paying a visit, and the older members of the family are in the room, he should, in leaving, bid them good-night first, and afterward say his farewell to the young girl on whom he has called. It is in bad taste for her to go any further than the parlor door with him.
Even if a correspondence is of a “purely friendly character,” it should not exist between a married woman and a young man, or between a married man and a young woman.
It is not good taste to ask one’s men friends to buy tickets for charity affairs. They do not like to refuse, and very often, though the sum required may be small, they cannot afford it.
There is very great harm in young girls meeting young men in secret; the men will have no respect for the girls, and nothing but mortification for the girls will be the result.