Page:The Ladies' and Gentlemen's Etiquette.djvu/234

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PART IV.

DRESS.

CHAPTER I.

THE TOILETTE.

IT is the duty of every woman to make herself as beautiful as possible; nor is it less the duty of every man to render himself pleasing in appearance. This duty of looking well is one we owe not only to ourselves, but to others also. We owe it to ourselves because others estimate us very naturally and very rightly by our outward appearance, and we owe it to others because we have no right to put our friends to the blush by untidiness or uncouthness.

If a gentleman requests the pleasure of a lady's company to the opera, she has no right to turn that expected pleasure into a pain and mortification by presenting herself with tumbled hair, ill-chosen dress, badly-fitting gloves and an atmosphere of cheap and offensive perfumes. So, again, if the gentleman comes to fulfill his appointment with

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