CORDIAL GREETINGS
One of the most valuable of social acquisitions is the habit of greeting people in a delightful way. Learn to say “Good morning!” audibly, heartily, as if you meant it. Unless one means to be very informal one should add the name, “Good morning, Miss Smith.” We all know men and women who possess this grace of salutation which lingers happily on those on whom it is bestowed.
In meeting people for the first time one should take pains to get their names exactly right. There is something very personal in one’s feeling about one’s name and one has a right to have it spoken and written as one elects. If a man is named “Davies” he can not be blamed for resenting it if people indifferently address him as “Mr. Davis.” If people who make introductions would take more trouble to speak the name distinctly, this would help greatly. If the name is indistinctly uttered you may say, “Pardon me, I did not understand the name?” which will generally bring forth a clear repetition.
Small matters, such as quiet breathing, betoken gentlehood. Flowers, if one is inhaling their perfume, should be treated delicately,—the face should not be buried in them. Remember Browning’s word,
“Any nose
May ravage with impunity a rose.”
It is frequently said that the weather, as a topic of conversation, is tabooed. But how charmingly Chesterton has defended it: “There are very deep reasons for talking about the weather ... it is a gesture of primeval worship ... to begin with the weather is a pagan way of beginning with prayer. Then it is an expression of that elementary idea in politeness—equality ... in that we all have our hats under the dark blue spangled umbrella of the universe.” Surely after reading so fine a plea, no one need fear to begin the morning’s conversation with a word on the weather!