htly: "But I can't bring her without an invitation from
you." Or, he merely evades the issue, and does not bring her.

=THE RESTAURANT CHECK=

Everyone has at some time or other been subjected to the awkward moment
when the waiter presents the check to the host. For a host to count up the
items is suggestive of parsimony, while not to look at them is
disconcertingly reckless, and to pay before their faces for what his
guests have eaten is embarrassing. Having the check presented to a hostess
when gentlemen are among her guests, is more unpleasant. Therefore, to
avoid this whole transaction, people who have not charge accounts, should
order the meal ahead, and at the same time pay for it in advance,
including the waiter's tip. Charge customers should make arrangements to
have the check presented to them elsewhere than at table.

=IN STORES OR SHOPS=

Lack of consideration for those who in any capacity serve you, is always
an evidence of ill-breeding, as well as of inexcusable selfishness.
Occasionally a so-called "lady" who has nothing whatever to do but drive
uptown or down in her comfortable limousine, vents her irritability upon a
saleswoman at a crowded counter in a store, because she does not leave
other customers and wait immediately upon her. Then, perhaps, when the
article she asked for is not to be had, she complains to the floor-walker
about the saleswoman's stupidity! Or having nothing that she can think of
to occupy an empty hour on her hands, she demands that every sort of
material be dragged down from the shelves until, discovering that it is at
last time for her appointment, she yawns and leaves.

Of course, on the other hand, there is the genuinely lethargic saleswoman
whose mind doesn't seem to register a single syllable that you have said
to her; who, with complete indifference to you and your preferences,
insists on showing what you distinctly say you do not want, and who caps
the climax by drawling "They" are wearing it this season! Does that sort
of saleswoman ever succeed in selling anything? Does anyone living buy
anything because someone, who knows nothing, tells another, who is often
an expert, what an indiscriminating "They" may be doing? That kind of a
saleswoman would try to tell Kreisler that "They" are not using violins
this season!

There are always two sides to the case, of course, and it is a credit to
good manners that there is scarcely ever any friction in stores and shops
of