So far, I have spoken of this class in the masculine, which is an error, as the art is successfully practised by the weaker sex, with this shade of difference.As an unmarried woman is in less general demand, she is apt to attach herself to one dear friend, always sure to be a lady in possession of fine country and city houses and other appurtenances of wealth, often of inferior social standing;so that there is give and take, the guest rendering real service to an ambitious hostess.The feminine aspirant need not be handsome.
On the contrary, an agreeable plainness is much more acceptable, serving as a foil.But she must be excellent in all games, from golf to piquet, and willing to play as often and as long as required.She must also cheerfully go in to dinner with the blue ribbon bore of the evening, only asked on account of his pretty wife (by the bye, why is it that Beauty is so often flanked by the Beast?), and sit between him and the "second prize" bore.These two worthies would have been the portion of the hostess fifteen years ago; she would have considered it her duty to absorb them and prevent her other guests suffering.MAIS NOUS AVONS CHANGE TOUTCELA.The lady of the house now thinks first of amusing herself, and arranges to sit between two favorites.
Society has become much simpler, and especially less expensive, for unmarried men than it used to be.Even if a hostess asks a favor in return for weeks of hospitality, the sacrifice she requires of a man is rarely greater than a cotillion with an unattractive debutante whom she is trying to launch; or the sitting through a particularly dull opera in order to see her to the carriage, her lord and master having slipped off early to his club and a quiet game of pool.Many people who read these lines are old enough to remember that prehistoric period when unmarried girls went to the theatre and parties, alone with the men they knew.This custom still prevails in our irrepressible West.It was an arrangement by which all the expenses fell on the man - theatre tickets, carriages if it rained, and often a bit of supper after.If a youth asked a girl to dance the cotillion, he was expected to send a bouquet, sure to cost between twenty and twenty-five dollars.What a blessed change for the impecunious swell when all this went out of fashion! New York is his paradise now; in other parts of the world something is still expected of him.In France it takes the form of a handsome bag of bon-bons on New Year's Day, if he has accepted hospitality during the past year.While here he need do absolutely nothing (unless he wishes to), the occasional leaving of a card having been suppressed of late by our JEUNESSE DOREE, five minutes of their society in an opera box being estimated (by them) as ample return for a dinner or a week in a country house.