TACTFUL LADIES AND AWKWARD EN.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13497, 25 May 1907, Page 4 (Supplement)

TACTFUL LADIES AND AWKWARD EN.

Ik everyone were endowed with an instinct such as would acquaint him with the moment when it behoves him to relieve "his company of his presence, the moral gain to society, says a- writer in the Globe, wouW be incalculable.

In order to mark the conclusion of an afternoon call, or some other chastened form of social intercourse, initiative is indispensable. Undoubtedly, the most desirable method of effecting this is to dovetail the parting phrases together with the previous conversation in so perfect a blending as to permit no gap of awkwardness to intervene between the two. .After which one may. perform the actual exit with a certain eclat which may be counted upon to inspire the person called upon with sensations of delight in the past and of loss in the present, I Such a consummation, however, it is not ; the good fortune of all to achieve. One may frequently notice a person who is consumed by an.ineffectual desire to leave. It is possible to watch the actual maturing of the resolution within him,; until the momentarrives when he will rise slightly from his chair—to be, dragged back by some invisible and compelling force. A second attempt, frustrated by the introduction of a fresh topic, may fail likewise to separate him entirely from his seat. Indeed, he may venture the same thing several times more ere he finds himself upon his feet and- in a fair way to gain the door. By that time, too, his embarrassment will be doubled by the conviction ■: that he has long exceeded the conventional time-limit of calls.

; A hopelessly bungled departure of the kind, it must "be admitted, seldom happens in the case of the gentler sex. The latter. possessed apparently of a more definite instinct concerning the fitting moment, are i wont to be less easily turned from this particular purpose. The symptoms that preI cede an exit here are but faintly perceptible; yet they arc unmistakable at the same timea premonitory rustle of the skirt, , a fleeting touch to the veil, a gradual straightening of the back, an indefinable alteration in the inflection of the voice such, and numerous other signs one may know that the female anchor is about to - be weighed. . _ . The methods of the conscientious I|j "leaver." invariably of the male persuasion, are widely different from these. He will rise with honest abruptness, and will invade every corner of the room—and, if per- 3j| mitted, every other available part of the house as well order to discover if some one does not yet remain, whom he has omit- ; ted to shake by the hand in pump-handle fashion. He is, moreover, a little apt to confuse mere politeness with a genuine de- - sire for his continued ', presence. And there are undoubtedly occasions when a sigh of 'relief rises up 'from the inner side of Indoor as it closes. A doubt as to something of the kind mav even oppress the most ; ;diffident visitor. "One can never tell—for it ' is impossible to return in order to find out. But one who goes in morbid fear of such an occurrence may be comforted by the reflection that a welcomed departure of the kind is wont to fall to the lot of the person who never dreams of such a possibility. v