In old-fashioned days no lady had a latch-key.  And it is still fitting and proper for a servant to open the door for her.

A young girl may not, even with her fiance, lunch in a road house without a chaperon, or go on a journey that can by any possibility last over night.  To go out with him in a small sail-boat sounds harmless enough, but might result in a questionable situation if they are becalmed, or if they are left helpless in a sudden fog.  The Maine coast, for example, is particularly subject to fogs that often shut down without warning and no one going out on the water can tell whether he will be able to get back within a reasonable time or not.  A man and a girl went out from Bar Harbor and did not get back until next day.  Everyone knew the fog had come in as thick as pea-soup and that it was impossible to get home; but to the end of time her reputation will suffer for the experience.

=A FEW PRECEPTS OF CONVENTION=

At a dinner party given for young people in a private house, a somewhat older sister would be a sufficient chaperon.  Or the young hostess’ mother after receiving the guests may, if she chooses, dine with her husband elsewhere than in the dining-room, the parents’ roof being supposedly chaperonage enough.

In going to tea in a college man’s room, or in a bachelor’s apartment, the proper chaperon should be a lady of fairly mature years.  To see two or three apparently young people going into a bachelor’s quarters would be open to criticism.  There are many places which are unsuitable for young girls to go to whether they are chaperoned or not.  No well brought up young girl should be allowed to go to supper at a cabaret until she is married, or has passed the age when “very young” can be applied to her.

=CONVENTIONS THAT CHANGE WITH LOCALITY=

In New York, for instance, no young girl of social standing may, without being criticized, go alone with a man to the theater.  Absolutely no lady (unless middle-aged-and even then she would be defying convention) can go to dinner or supper in a restaurant alone with a gentleman.  A lady, not young, who is staying in a very dignified hotel, can have a gentleman dine with her.  But any married woman, if her husband does not object, may dine alone in her own home with any man she pleases or have a different one come in to tea every day in the week without being criticized.

A very young girl may motor around the country alone with a man, with her father’s consent, or sit with him on the rocks by the sea or on a log in the woods; but she must not sit with him in a restaurant.  All of which is about as upside down as it can very well be.  In a restaurant they are not only under the surveillance of many eyes, but they can scarcely speak without being overheard, whereas short-distance motoring, driving, riding, walking or sitting on the seashore has no element of protection certainly.  Again, though she may not lunch with him in a restaurant, she is sometimes (not always) allowed to go to a moving picture matinee with him!  Why sitting in the dark in a moving picture theater is allowed, and the restaurant is tabu is very mysterious.