“Oh, that varies,” answered Mildred. “In most of them there is a small hall with waxed floor and piano to be used for dancing or singing classes or debating clubs. There is another room for gymnastics, with apparatus and a piano, where a competent person will direct, and gradually insinuate various sensible ideas in regard to high heels, tightlacing and a bad carriage, and try to make physical culture seem a desirable thing.
“There will be another room for quiet games like checkers and dominoes, several bath-rooms, and a parlor where the girls can bring their fancy work and receive their friends.”
“But, Mildred,” I cried in alarm, “you will get a perfect mob, if you are not careful. They will bang your piano to pieces, they will have rude kissing games, the girls will waltz with men whom they never saw before; and then, if you make rules and don’t let them have their own way, they won’t come. I know the kind of people whom you want to help, and they are the most independent creatures living.”
“Ah, but wait a minute,” replied Mildred calmly. “The ‘mob’ are not to be invited to pour in from the street. Each one must apply for a membership ticket, give name and address, and wait a few days before it is granted. There may be, perhaps, a slight nominal fee. They will appreciate it more to have this little formality about it. Moreover, the lady who is at the head of the club, and who will be a person of character and tact, will have authority to exclude any unruly member. Nothing will be said about rules. They will be received as if they were of course expected to behave well.
“Five or six of the ‘King’s Daughters’ have agreed to be in attendance every night, with as many gentlemen who are their escorts. They will play for dancing and gymnastics whenever it is needed. They will act as daughters of a host and receive and introduce their guests. They will join in the singing and the games and the conversation, and, with the gentlemen whom they bring, will, I think, be far more effectual in encouraging good manners than any number of rules.
“Now that everything has been planned and the wherewithal provided, I have had no difficulty in getting some hundreds of agreeable, well-bred young ladies from the different churches who have each pledged themselves to bring some gentleman to assist them and to give one evening a week faithfully to the social club.
“It is distinctly understood that there is to be no authority exercised by them, no patronizing tolerated, and charity, and that other odious word philanthropy, not so much as thought of.
“All are to meet on the same footing, simply as young people who are met to have a good time in an orderly, pleasant way.
“At first there will doubtless be hoidenish manners, a good deal of simpering and whispering and flat talk, which of course must be ignored. But by and by the presence of ten refined, Christian young gentlemen and ladies with tact and quick wit will make itself felt. There will be charades and word games like twenty questions, and a hundred such merry ways of passing the time, of which these girls have never dreamed. They will go home with new ideas about dress and manners and ways of having a good time. The veriest boor, who may begin by tipping back in his chair and picking his teeth, will not fail to observe finally that if he wishes to retain the respect of his ‘best girl’ his manners must conform a little more to those of that young law student who spent half an hour the other night showing her how to play parchesi, and then helped her on with her waterproof, put up her umbrella for her, and bowed her a pleasant good evening.
“I assure you,” continued Mildred, “I have made the discovery that the best way to turn a silly little chit into a self-respecting woman is for a gentleman to treat her as if she were one. And the best way to make a stupid clown appear at his best is for a young lady of tact to try to draw him out.