But it is heartless and delinquent if you do not go to the funeral of one
with whom you were associated in business or other interests, or to whose
house you were often invited, or where you are a friend of the immediate
members of the family.

You should wear black clothes if you have them, or if not, the darkest,
the least conspicuous you possess. Enter the church as quietly as
possible, and as there are no ushers at a funeral, seat yourself where you
approximately belong. Only a very intimate friend should take a position
far up on the center aisle. If you are merely an acquaintance you should
sit inconspicuously in the rear somewhere, unless the funeral is very
small and the church big, in which case you may sit on the end seat of the
center aisle toward the back.

CHAPTER XXV

THE COUNTRY HOUSE AND ITS HOSPITALITY

The difference between the great house with twenty to fifty guest rooms,
all numbered like the rooms in a hotel, and the house of ordinary good
size with from four to six guest rooms, or the farmhouse or small cottage
which has but one "best" spare chamber, with perhaps a "man's room" on the
ground floor, is much the same as the difference between the elaborate
wedding and the simplest--one merely of degree and not of kind.

To be sure, in the great house, week-end guests often include those who
are little more than acquaintances of the host and hostess, whereas the
visitor occupying the only "spare" room is practically always an intimate
friend. Excepting, therefore, that people who have few visitors never ask
any one on their general list, and that those who fill an enormous house
time and time again necessarily do, the etiquette, manners, guest room
appointments and the people who occupy them, are precisely the same.
Popular opinion to the contrary, a man's social position is by no means
proportionate to the size of his house, and even though he lives in a
bungalow, he may have every bit as high a position in the world of fashion
as his rich neighbor in his palace--often much better!

We all of us know a Mr. Newgold who would give many of the treasures in
his marble palace for a single invitation to Mrs. Oldname's comparatively
little house, and half of all he possesses for the latter's knowledge,
appearance, manner, instincts and position--none of which he himself is
likely ever to acquire, though his children may! But in our description of
great or medium or small houses, we are con