ed
ever be, and the second form is preferable, unless great intimacy
makes the less abrupt one permissible.

"DEAR MR. LEGROW:

I have read of your bereavement with the deepest
sorrow. I cannot tell you how fully I sympathize with
you and your children, or how my heart aches for you
in your loneliness. May you have strength and grace
to bear up under the great loss you have sustained.

Sincerely yours,
MARGARET EDELSTONE."

"DEAR MRS. HILCOX:
You have my deepest sympathy.
Ever cordially yours,
MILDRED HASSELTINE."

_Answering Letters_

Business letters should be answered by return mail, as should also all
invitations to dinner or luncheon.

All invitations should be answered within a day if possible, because
delay looks like a reluctance to accept. They should certainly be
answered, either personally or by letter, within a week after the
invitation is received.

Friendly letters should have such promptness of response as
circumstances and the intimacy of the friendship demand.

Notes of congratulation and felicitation should be sent promptly after
receiving the card or note announcement of an engagement or a birth,
and in the latter case at least, should be followed by a call.

A personal visiting card, with the words "Thank you for sympathy"
written over the name, is sufficient acknowledgment of letters of
condolence. To very intimate friends, however, the spontaneous note of
thanks would be more courteous. As it is almost impossible, at such a
time, to attend to matters of social intercourse, the sending of the
card is always permissible, and can occasion no offense, even if the
more intimate acknowledgment was hoped for.

CHAPTER V

CASUAL MEETINGS AND CALLS

_Greetings and Recognitions_

THE bow and the handshake are the accepted forms of greeting in the
United States to-day. The bow varies from a very slight inclination of
the head, as one gentleman passes another, or from the quick touching
of the hat with the hand, in a sort of reminiscence of the military
salute, to the various degrees of elaborate bow which savors of
European ceremonial courtesy.

The usual form is a bending of the head and shoulders, with the eyes
kept on those of the person greeted, the hat being removed from the