So again we come back to the present situation and the problem of the average young girl whose right it is, because of her youth and sweetness, to be happy and young—­and not to be terrified, wretched and neglected.  The one and only solution seems to be for her to join a group.

=THE FLOCK-SYSTEM OF THE WISE FLEDGLINGS=

If a number of young girls and young men come together—­better yet, if they go everywhere together, always sit in a flock, always go to supper together, always dance with one another—­they not only have a good time but they are sure to be popular with drifting odd men also.  If a man knows that having asked a girl to dance, one of her group will inevitably “cut in,” he is eager to dance with her.  Or if he can take her “to the others” when they have danced long enough, he is not only delighted to be with her for a while but to sit with her “and the others” off and on throughout that and every other evening, because since there are always “some of them together” he can go again the moment he chooses.

Certain groups of clever girls sit in precisely the same place in a ballroom, to the right of the door, or the left, or in a corner.  One might almost say they form a little club; they dance as much as they like, but come back “home” between whiles.  They all go to supper together, and whether individuals have partners or not is scarcely noticeable, nor even known by themselves.

No young girl, unless she is a marked favorite, should ever go to a ball alone.  If her especial “flock” has not as yet been systematized, she must go to a dinner before every dance, so as to go, and stay, with a group.  If she is not asked to dinner, her mother must give one for her; or she must have at least one dependable beau—­or better, two—­who will wait for her and look out for her.

=MAID GOES WITH HER=

A young girl who goes to a ball without a chaperon (meaning of course a private ball), takes a maid with her who sits in the dressing-room the entire evening.  Not only is it thought proper to have a maid waiting, but nothing can add more to the panic of a partnerless girl than to feel she has not even a means of escape by going home; she can always call a taxi as long as her maid is with her, and go.  Otherwise she either has to stay in the ballroom or sit forlorn among the visiting maids in the dressing-room.

=WHAT MAKES A YOUNG GIRL A BALLROOM SUCCESS=

Much of the above is so pessimistic one might suppose that a ballroom is always a chamber of torture and the young girl taken as an example above, a very drab and distorted caricature of what “a real young girl” should be and is.  But remember, the young girl who is a “belle of the ballroom” needs no advice on how to manage a happy situation; no thought spent on how to make a perfect time better.  The ballroom is the most wonderful stage-setting there is for the girl who is a ballroom success.  And for this, especial talents are needed just as they are for art or sport or any other accomplishment.