Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/17

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The Average Girl
5

lon, a bit of delicate cake or an ice, which is the most that is ever served, even at a formal tea. Unless you should meet many friends, ten or fifteen minutes is quite long enough for you to stay. It is not necessary for you to remove your gloves, and, if you are fortunate enough to have come in a carriage, you will find it more convenient to leave your wraps there, and so be able to make your entrance at once, than if you went to the room dedicated to the caring for one's outer garments. We are all getting to be such good walkers, however, that it is the exceptional woman who, going from house to house, can make her entrance right from her carriage to the drawing-room. Cultivate, for afternoon use especially, a quantity of small talk, about the charm of the hostess, the beauty of the flowers, that blessing to all humanity—the weather, and the last entertainment counted of worth. Never mind if you do say the same thing to everybody you meet, as long as it makes you avoid personalities; there is always wisdom in saying that which makes conversation and wounds nobody's feelings.

A FASHIONABLE DINNER-PARTY

You have never been to one before, and so your cousin, with whom you are staying, suggests the proper frock. It is a light-colored silk made sim-