be late! Nothing is
more unfair to others who are keen about whatever it is you are going to
see, than to make them miss the beginning of a performance through your
thoughtless selfishness.

For this reason box-holders who are music-lovers do not ask guests who
have the "late habit" to dine before the opera, because experience has
taught them they will miss the overture and most of the first act if they
do. Those, on the other hand, who care nothing for music and go to the
opera to see people and be seen, seldom go until most if not all of the
first act is over. But these in turn might give music-loving guests their
choice of going alone in time for the overture and waiting for them in the
box at the opera, or having the pleasure of dining with their hostess but
missing most of the first part.

=AT GAMES, THE CIRCUS OR ELSEWHERE=

Considerate and polite behavior by each member of an audience is the same
everywhere. At outdoor games, or at the circus, it is not necessary to
stop talking. In fact, a good deal of noise is not out of the way in
"rooting" at a match, and a circus band does not demand silence in order
to appreciate its cheerful blare. One very great annoyance in open air
gatherings is cigar smoke when blown directly in one's face, or worse yet
the smoke from a smouldering cigar. It is almost worthy of a study in air
currents to discover why with plenty of space all around, a tiny column of
smoke will make straight for the nostrils of the very one most nauseated
by it!

The only other annoyance met with at ball games or parades or wherever
people occupy seats on the grandstand, is when some few in front get
excited and insist on standing up. If those in front stand--those behind
naturally have to! Generally people call out "down in front." If they
won't stay "down," then all those behind have to stay "up." Also umbrellas
and parasols entirely blot out the view of those behind.

CHAPTER VII

CONVERSATION

=NEED OF RECIPROCITY=

Ideal conversation should be a matter of equal give and take, but too
often it is all "take." The voluble talker--or chatterer--rides his own
hobby straight through the hours without giving anyone else, who might
also like to say something, a chance to do other than exhaustedly await
the turn that never comes. Once in a while--a very long while--one meets a
brilliant person whose talk is a delight; or still more rarely a wit who
manipulates every ordinary topic with