RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31590, 30 January 1968, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

INTRODUCTIONS

Years ago there used to be books on etiquette, because there was some in those days. So it was not only possible, but almost imperative, for the young lady entering society to mug up what to do with gloves, suitors, chocolate eclairs, duchesses, etc., in any given circumstances. Today there would be no market for such there are still some situations in which the principals feel ip need of assistance. Take the case of the Wellington man who came to Christchurch to visit his sick mother, and who expected to be away several days. Because she

made a quick recovery, he was able to return a couple of days earlier than planned. He arrived at his home, entered the house quietly to surprise his wife, opened his bedroom door, and saw a strange man in bis bed. The returning householder had no reading background to help him in his conduct of the situation. He knew no better than to make a terse inquiry in a loud voice. Had he been able to study a suitable text-book in his youth, he might have realised that it would be possible for a man to come home as he had done, to

see a man in his bed, and to know immediately that while he had been away, his wife had had a visit from her cousin and the cousin's husband, that his wife had gracefully yielded their bedroom to the visitors, that she was sleeping peacefully in the spare room, and that if he, the home-coming traveller, had opened the door just a little wider he would have been able to see and indentify his wife’s cousin, a lady he had met, instead of being given nothing more misleading than the sight of his wife’s cousin's husband, a gentleman he had not.