er," who valued their
acquaintance so highly that he was determined to gain it, even at the
sacrifice of the customs of good society.

Americans when abroad, unless in an official position, have very little
opportunity of gaining a knowledge of such requirements of etiquette as
had influenced this gentleman in making the overtures he had thought
necessary; nor can we be expected to be acquainted with them. The rules
of social etiquette are all so well understood and practiced in Europe
that no opportunity presents itself for the miscomprehensions as to
one's duties in society which prevail with us. There every detail is
prescribed by the codes and usages of courts; and one might as well pass
an acquaintance in the street without the usual salutation as neglect
any one of these forms. Again to illustrate: A gentleman belonging at
one time to the English legation in Washington passed a summer at one of
our fashionable watering-places. His official position would have
secured him the consideration to which he was entitled, even had he not
been the general favorite that he was; but the men who left their cards
from time to time upon him were not always particular in having
themselves presented the first time they met him afterward at the club
or at dinners; and looking upon this omission as he had been trained to
do, it could not but seem to him an intentional rudeness on their part.
The consequence was, he avoided the watering-place thereafter, and
sought his summer recreation where there was less pretension at least,
and where he doubtless became less exacting or more accustomed to such
trifling breaches of etiquette.

For want of an exact code many points of etiquette are with us left
open to discussion, and this without reference to foreign ideas. Thus
the custom of inviting gentlemen to call when a married lady wishes to
give them the entree to her house seems to have become an obsolete one
with a great many. Quite recently a discussion took place as to its
propriety between several ladies of distinction in this city. One lady
said that it was the Philadelphia custom for gentlemen to call where
they wished, without waiting for an invitation, after they had made the
acquaintance of any lady in the family; and more than one married woman
asserted that they had never yet asked a gentleman to come to see them;
while another insisted that gentlemen generally would not venture to
make a call upon any married lady unless she