Others, if they are among the great majority of “quiet” people, go home after the theater, especially if they have dined with their hostess (or host) before the play.

=DON’T BE LATE=

When you are dining before going to the opera or theater you must arrive on the stroke of the hour for which you are asked; it is one occasion when it is inexcusable to be late.

In accepting an invitation for lunch or dinner after which you are going to a game, or any sort of performance, you must not be late!  Nothing is more unfair to others who are keen about whatever it is you are going to see, than to make them miss the beginning of a performance through your thoughtless selfishness.

For this reason box-holders who are music-lovers do not ask guests who have the “late habit” to dine before the opera, because experience has taught them they will miss the overture and most of the first act if they do.  Those, on the other hand, who care nothing for music and go to the opera to see people and be seen, seldom go until most if not all of the first act is over.  But these in turn might give music-loving guests their choice of going alone in time for the overture and waiting for them in the box at the opera, or having the pleasure of dining with their hostess but missing most of the first part.

=AT GAMES, THE CIRCUS OR ELSEWHERE=

Considerate and polite behavior by each member of an audience is the same everywhere.  At outdoor games, or at the circus, it is not necessary to stop talking.  In fact, a good deal of noise is not out of the way in “rooting” at a match, and a circus band does not demand silence in order to appreciate its cheerful blare.  One very great annoyance in open air gatherings is cigar smoke when blown directly in one’s face, or worse yet the smoke from a smouldering cigar.  It is almost worthy of a study in air currents to discover why with plenty of space all around, a tiny column of smoke will make straight for the nostrils of the very one most nauseated by it!

The only other annoyance met with at ball games or parades or wherever people occupy seats on the grandstand, is when some few in front get excited and insist on standing up.  If those in front stand—­those behind naturally have to!  Generally people call out “down in front.”  If they won’t stay “down,” then all those behind have to stay “up.”  Also umbrellas and parasols entirely blot out the view of those behind.

CHAPTER VII

CONVERSATION

=NEED OF RECIPROCITY=

Ideal conversation should be a matter of equal give and take, but too often it is all “take.”  The voluble talker—­or chatterer—­rides his own hobby straight through the hours without giving anyone else, who might also like to say something, a chance to do other than exhaustedly await the turn that never comes.  Once in a while—­a very long while—­one meets a brilliant person whose talk is a delight; or still more rarely a wit who manipulates every ordinary topic with the agility of a sleight-of-hand performer, to the ever increasing rapture of his listeners.