our cheek
to a friend, but keep your lips for your lover."

Never prescribe any forfeiture which can wound the feelings of any of
the company, and "pay" those which may be adjudged to you with
cheerful promptness.

6. _Dancing._

An evening party is often only another name for a ball. We may have as
many and as weighty objections to dancing, as conducted at these
fashionable parties, as to the formal dinners and rich and late
suppers which are in vogue in the same circles, but this is not the
place to discuss the merits of the quadrille or the waltz, but to lay
down the etiquette of the occasions on which they are practiced. We
condense from the various authorities before us the following code:

1. According to the hours now in fashion in our large cities, ten
o'clock is quite early enough to present yourself at a dance. You will
even then find many coming after you. In the country, you should go
earlier.

2. Draw on your gloves (white or yellow) in the dressing-room, and do
not be for one moment with them off in the dancing-rooms. At supper
take them off; nothing is more preposterous than to eat in gloves.

3. When you are sure of a place in the dance, you go up to a lady and
ask her if she will _do you the honor_ to dance with you. If she
answers that she is engaged, merely request her to name the earliest
dance for which she is not engaged, and when she will do you the honor
of dancing with you.

4. If a gentleman offers to dance with a lady, she should not refuse,
unless for some _particular_ and _valid_ reason, in which case she
can accept the next offer. But if she has no further objection than a
temporary dislike or a piece of coquetry, it is a direct insult to him
to refuse him and accept the next offer; besides, it shows too marked
a preference for the latter.

5. When a woman is standing in a quadrille, though not engaged in
dancing, a man not acquainted with her partner should not converse
with her.

6. When an unpracticed dancer makes a mistake, we may apprize him of
his error; but it would be very impolite to have the air of giving him
a lesson.

7. Unless a man has a very graceful figure, and can use it with great
elegance, it is better for him to _walk_ through the quadrilles, or
invent some gliding movement for the occasion.

8. At the end of the dance, the gentleman re-conducts the lady to her
place, bows, and thanks her for the honor which she has conferred. She
also bows in silence.