The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Perfect Gentleman, by Ralph Bergengren

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Title: The Perfect Gentleman

Author: Ralph Bergengren

Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23481]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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_The_

PERFECT GENTLEMAN

BY

RALPH BERGENGREN

[Illustration]

The Atlantic Monthly Press
Boston

COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY
THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY PRESS, INC.

_The author gratefully acknowledges his indebtedness to The Century Co.
for permission to reprint "Oh, Shining Shoes!"_

CONTENTS

The Perfect Gentleman 1

As a Man Dresses 14

In the Chair 28

Oh, Shining Shoes! 43

On Making Calls 55

The Lier in Bed 67

To Bore or Not to Bore 79

Where Toils the Tailor 93

Shaving Thoughts 106

Oh, The Afternoon Tea! 122

THE PERFECT GENTLEMAN

Somewhere in the back of every man's mind there dwells a strange wistful
desire to be thought a Perfect Gentleman. And this is much to his
credit, for the Perfect Gentleman, as thus wistfully contemplated, is a
high ideal of human behavior, although, in the narrower but honest
admiration of many, he is also a Perfect Ass. Thus, indeed, he comes
down the centuries--a sort of Siamese Twins, each miraculously visible
only to its own admirers; a worthy personage proceeding at one end of
the connecting cartilage, and a popinjay prancing at the other. Emerson
was, and described, one twin when he wrote, 'The gentleman is a man of
truth, lord of his own actions, and expressing that lordship in his
behavior; not in any manner dependent or servile, either on persons, or
opinions, or possessions.' Walter Pater, had Leonardo painted a Perfect
Gentleman's portrait instead of a Perfect Lady's, might have described
the other: 'The presence that thus rose so strangely beside the
tea-table is express