the mess of a matrimonial "hash." The home is the other side
of a man's business, the side which his wife runs. Well, as he has had
to study to work up his side, why let hers be such a "jump in the dark,"
for him? Let the home become a study, even a science, and let not so
many wives reach a forgivable level of domestic excellence on the "dead
bodies" of so many unforgivable "bloomers." Remember that in matrimony,
as in everything else it is the premier "bloomer" which blows up les
chateaux en Espagne. Afterwards you have to use concrete--and build as
you may.

_The Neglected Art of Eating Gracefully_

Were it not for the fact that we are usually eating at the same time, and
so in no mood to criticise the mastication of others, I am sure that not
half so many people would fall into love, nor be able to keep up the
passionate illusion when fate had pushed them into it. For to watch
people eat is, as a rule, to see them at the same disadvantage as the
housemaid sees them when she calls them in the morning. Very few people
can eat prettily. The majority "munch" in a most unbecoming fashion.
For, say what you will, to eat may possibly be delightful, but it is
certainly not a romantic episode of the everyday. True, restaurants have
done their best to add glamour to our daily chewing. And the better the
cuisine, the less time we have for regarding others. That is why
hostesses are usually so harassed over their menus. Very few guests
arrive really hungry. So she has to entice, as it were, the already
replete stomach by delicacies which it really doesn't want, but is not
too distended to enjoy. Thus they are kept busy all the time, and have
no leisure to observe. But I always wish that part of our education
included a course of lessons in the art of eating enough, and of eating
it elegantly. Not one person in a hundred is anything but a monstrous
spectacle in front of a plateful of stewed tripe. But, as I said before,
we are, happily, so busy with our own plateful at the time that we have
usually no leisure to regard their stuffing. Personally, I always think
that the only way to enjoy a really good dinner is to eat it alone.
People are delightful over coffee, but I want only my dreams with salmon
mayonnaise.

Of course you _can_ eat _and_ talk, but only the exceptionally clever
people can talk and enjoy what they eat. I always envy them. Many an
excellent dinner have I lost to all intents and purpo