Your third question is one difficult to answer.  Are girls as well bred as boys—­Yes—­and no!  Their training lies along different lines.  A few days ago I was talking with a young man who had a grievance.  A girl of his acquaintance had, the night before, been at a reception which he had also attended.  Feeling a little weary she retired to a comfortable corner of the room, and sat there during the entire evening.  She “did not feel like dancing,” and told her hostess “she would rather sit still.”  My young friend had a severe headache, but, although suffering, his appreciation of les convenances would not allow him to sit down in a secluded niche for fifteen minutes, during the entire evening.  His “grievance” was that had he done this he would have been voted a boor, while the girl’s action was condoned by hostess and guests.  One thing must always be considered—­namely, that a woman’s part is, in many points of etiquette, passive.  It is the man who takes the initiative, and who is made such a prominent figure that all eyes are drawn to him.  Have you ever noticed it?  Man proposes, woman accepts.  Man stands, woman remains seated.  Man lifts his hat, woman merely bows.  Man acts as escort, woman as the escorted.  So, when a man is careless or thoughtless, it is all the more evident.  For this reason, begin as a boy, to observe all the small, sweet courtesies of life.  I often wish there were any one point in which a woman could show her genuine ladyhood as a man displays his gentlehood by the management of his hat,—­raising it entirely from the head on meeting a woman, lifting it when the lady with whom he is walking bows to an acquaintance, or when his man-companion meets a friend, baring his head on meeting, parting from, or kissing mother, sister or wife.  These, with other points, such as rising when a woman enters the room, and remaining standing until she is seated, giving her the precedence in passing in or out of a door, and picking up the handkerchief or glove she lets fall—­are sure indices of the gentleman, or, by their absence, mark the boor.

But our girl should not think that she can afford to overlook the acts of tactful courtesy which are her duty as well as her brother’s.  Prominent among these she should place the deference due those who are older than herself.  Her temptation is often to exercise a patronizing toleration toward her elders, and, while she is not actually disrespectful, she still has the air of a very superior young being holding converse with a person who has the advantage merely in the accident of years.  Did she realize how ridiculous these very youthful, foolish manners are, she would blush for herself.  She will—­when she has attained the age of discretion.

Another of our girls’ mistakes is that of imagining that brusqueness and pertness are wit.  There is no other error more common with girls from fifteen to eighteen; they generally choose a boy as the butt of their sarcastic remarks—­and, to their shame be it said, they frequently select a lad who is too courteous to retort in kind.