hom it is intended, to avoid mistakes.[C]

When you are going abroad, intending to be absent for some time, you
inclose your card in an envelope, having first, written T. T. L. [to
take leave], or P. P. C. [_pour prendre conge_] upon it--for a man the
former is better--and direct it outside to the person for whom it is
intended. In taking leave of a _family_, you send as many cards as you
would if you were paying an ordinary visit. When you return from your
voyage, all the persons to whom, before going, you have sent cards,
will pay you the first visit. If, previously to a voyage or his
marriage, any one should not send his card to another, it is to be
understood that he wishes the acquaintance to cease. The person,
therefore, who is thus _dis_carded, should never again visit the
other.[D]

Visiting cards should be engraved or handsomely written. Those
printed on type are considered vulgar, simply, no doubt, because they
are cheap. A gentleman's card should be of medium size, unglazed,
ungilt, and perfectly plain. A lady's card may be larger and finer,
and should be carried in a card-case.

If you should happen to be paying an evening visit at a house, where,
unknown to you, there is a small party assembled, you should enter and
present yourself precisely as you would have done had you been
invited. To retire precipitately with an apology for the intrusion
would create a _scene_, and be extremely awkward. Go in, therefore,
converse with ease for a few moments, and then retire.

In making morning calls, usage allows a gentleman to wear a frock
coat, or a sack coat, if the latter happen to be in fashion. The frock
coat is now, in this country, _tolerated_ at dinner-parties, and even
at a ball, but is not considered in good _ton_ or style.

"Ladies," according to the authority of a writer of their own sex,
"should make morning calls in an elegant and simple _neglige_, all the
details of which we can not give, on account of their multiplicity and
the numerous modifications of fashion. It is necessary for them, when
visiting at this time, to arrange their toilet with great care."

VI.--APPOINTMENTS.

Be exact in keeping all appointments. It is better never to avail
yourself of even the quarter of an hour's grace sometimes allowed.

If you make an appointment with another at your own house, you should
be invisible to the rest of the world, and consecrate your time solely
to him.

If you accept an appointment at t