A gentleman paying visits, always asks if the hostess is at home.  If she is, he leaves his hat and stick in the hall and also removes and leaves his gloves—­and rubbers should he be wearing them.  If the hour is between five and half-past, the hostess is inevitably at her tea-table, in the library, to which, if he is at all well known to the servant at the door, he is at once shown without being first asked to wait in the reception room.  A gentleman entering a room in which there are several people who are strangers, shakes hands with his hostess and slightly bows to all the others, whether he knows them personally or not.  He, of course, shakes hands with any who are friends, and with all men to whom he is introduced, but with a lady only if she offers him her hand.

=HOW TO ENTER A DRAWING-ROOM=

To know how to enter a drawing-room is supposed to be one of the supreme tests of good breeding.  But there should be no more difficulty in entering the drawing-room of Mrs. Worldly than in entering the sitting-room at home.  Perhaps the best instruction would be like that in learning to swim.  “Take plenty of time, don’t struggle and don’t splash about!” Good manners socially are not unlike swimming—­not the “crawl” or “overhand,” but smooth, tranquil swimming. (Quite probably where the expression “in the swim” came from anyway!) Before actually entering a room, it is easiest to pause long enough to see where the hostess is.  Never start forward and then try to find her as an afterthought.  The place to pause is on the threshold—­not half-way in the room.  The way not to enter a drawing-room is to dart forward and then stand awkwardly bewildered and looking about in every direction.  A man of the world stops at the entrance of the room for a scarcely perceptible moment, until he perceives the most unencumbered approach to the hostess, and he thereupon walks over to her.  When he greets his hostess he pauses slightly, the hostess smiles and offers her hand; the gentleman smiles and shakes hands, at the same time bowing.  A lady shakes hands with the hostess and with every one she knows who is nearby.  She bows to acquaintances at a distance and to strangers to whom she is introduced.

=HOW TO SIT GRACEFULLY=

Having shaken hands with the hostess, the visitor, whether a lady or a gentleman, looks about quietly, without hurry, for a convenient chair to sit down upon, or drop into.  To sit gracefully one should not perch stiffly on the edge of a straight chair, nor sprawl at length in an easy one.  The perfect position is one that is easy, but dignified.  In other days, no lady of dignity ever crossed her knees, held her hands on her hips, or twisted herself sideways, or even leaned back in her chair! To-day all these things are done; and the only etiquette left is on the subject of how not to exaggerate them.  No lady should cross her knees so that her skirts go up to or above them; neither should her foot be