cards, which they leave at the door without asking to see any one. Friends on more intimate footing would send notes and call in person after the funeral.

Cards and notes of condolence should be acknowledged by a mourning card at the recipient's convenience, upon which may be written a line of thanks expressing appreciation for sympathy and attention, or an engraved card may be sent in recognition of expressions of condolence received, inscribed,

Mrs. Blank

and her family gratefully acknowledge

's

kind expressions of sympathy

(Address.)

When leaving cards at the door of a friend who is ill, one writes upon them, "To enquire," and for a friend to whom some new joy has come a brief word of felicitation, if only "Congratulations!" Cards of congratulation cannot be left

too soon.

A card left at one's door or sent by post is the intimation that one's acquaintance is desired. One cannot know what pressure of care or trouble or what matters of health may oblige a woman to lay aside social claims for a season. Our friends must be consistent, however, and we rightly feel aggrieved when singled out for the bald attention of a card when others receive personal visits.

"Pour

To drop an unwelcome acquaintance, one has only to omit sending or leaving cards. prendre congé" (P. p. c.) cards are sent to friends and acquaintances when one is about to leave town for a long absence, or permanently, or as a mere notification to a few persons of intended departure. It is incorrect to capitalize the second and third letters. If the translation were used, the words would be written "To take leave," not "To Take Leave."

The "P. p. c." card is the only survival of a passing fashion in France, during which cards were printed with such letters in one corner and others with" P. r." (Partie remise), " P. c" (Pour condoléance), which were intended to convey the object of one's visit to the person whom one did not find at home.

An old French nobleman, of a type happily extinct, being told that he had but a short time to live, directed that his P. p. c. cards should be sent to all his acquaintances!

Chapter Sixth - THE ETIQUETTE

OF CALLING

N France it has long been the custom for every one to send cards by hand or post on New Year's day to one's entire acquaintance. This

answers for the year, and no more is thought about it. The recipients are thereby assured that their acquaintance is desired and valued, and the "pasteboard war" ushers in social peace and good-will.

It has a sound almost of Arcadian simplicity in comparison with the laborious system with which we have loaded ourselves, as with a millstone about our necks. The truth is that we are trying to preserve in our large cities the customs and courteous conventions that fit only small communities. To try to keep up personal social relations with five or six hundred people is to attempt the impossible. Visiting, therefore, has become such a perfunctory obligation, and the difficulty is so well understood, that people do not hold each other to strict account, and show the leniency of which they know themselves to be in need.

Our visiting-lists naturally grow longer with the passing of the years, since one meets charming new people and one does not neglect old friends;

but the time between sunrise and sunset remains unchanged, so calling for form's sake is growing to be regarded as less imperative. Otherwise, at the end of the season we may find that we have religiously paid the social "mint, anise, and cummin," have called upon our acquaintances with punctilious politeness, but those for whom we really care have been crowded out of our lives.

When we see our friends only in their best gowns and in the society of others, we have to nourish our interest and affection upon what we have known of them "under the surface" in time past, and little by little we grow indifferent and learn to do without them.

It is a compliment to human nature that usually, the better we know people, the better we like them, and we are constantly thrown with persons who remain mere acquaintances because we have no time to become friends.

Calling seems a rather senseless custom, but as it affords the only manner of recruiting lists for invitations and sets the limits to one's circle of acquaintance, nothing has, as yet, been found to take its place.

It is still the aim to make a personal visit once a year upon all one's acquaintance, but many women call only upon those whose cards they have received, naming a reception day; social aim others give an annual reception or a

The

series of afternoon teas, inviting their entire circle, and returning personal calls by driving from house

to house and leaving cards without inquiring if the lady be at home.

To take this position, a woman must have the excuse of age, delicate health, or undoubted social prominence, having an interminable visiting-list which exempts her from ordinary rules, since it is obvious that her social obligations are not the paramount ones in life.

Allowance must be made for such women and for those whose work entitles them to a "special dispensation" for sins of omission, but in the main there must be perfect social equality among acquaintance, or at least the semblance of it. According to strictly Old Testament ethics, there must be a call for a call, and a card for a card.

It is incumbent upon every one, however, to make personal visits in recognition of dinner, luncheon, or other invitations for hospitaliSocial ties limited to selected guests, within a fortnight after the function.

obligation

Ordinary mortals incur the obligation of a personal visit for each invitation issued for a tea or reception.

Calls after receptions

The presence of a guest at a reception is accounted a visit, and this disposes of the question whether or not an after-call is required. To give an afternoon tea is only another way for a woman to say, "Come and see me when you will be sure of finding me at home." A reception, like a débutante's "coming out tea,” one given to celebrate a wedding anniversary or