Never, especially with your superiors, buttonhole people, or shake your fist in their faces, or pound them in the ribs when you have occasion to address them. This is more appropriate to a horse auction than a drawing-room, and is in violation of good form.
Never lean across one person with your hands on his knees and your back-hair in his face, to talk to another.
Never bawl out at the top of your lungs, or try to monopolize all the talk; you are neither in the stock exchange nor a cattle yard.
Never, if bald and warm, mop and rub up your head, ears and neck with your handkerchief. A reception or drawing-room is not a barber-shop.
Never intrude your maladies upon the general conversation. People cannot be so much interested in your bunions or backache as you are.
Never violently abuse people who may overhear you, nor be bitingly witty at another’s expense.
Never interrupt the general conversation by reading long-winded newspaper reports aloud.
Never contemptuously criticise the furniture, the pictures, or the wall-paper as being cheap and mean. This is but a scurvy return for the hospitality you are enjoying.
Never chew tobacco, or smoke a pipe at receptions. If you must do the one or the other, be sure to use the cuspidor; but it is safer to let up on tobacco until out-of-doors, or in your own room.
Never calumniate people, or give a false coloring to your statements. In other words, don’t lie any more than you can help. Be diplomatic.