te interest in the object. An averted eye is disrespectful, and
suggests insincerity or treachery. Not that it always means either;
the "drooping eyelash" is affected by many women as gracefully
expressive of feminine modesty. It may be coquettish, but there is
nothing particularly womanly in never looking a man in the eye. Search
the face that confronts you, and learn what manner of man this is whom
you are receiving into your company and fellowship. If he quails under
the inquisition, so much the worse for him. If he is worth looking at,
it is a pity to miss the sight. Moreover, we more than half suspect
that a woman's face is more attractive if her eyes occasionally "look
up clear," instead of allowing the downcast lids to hide all of their
vivacity and expression.

The gayety or the gravity of the countenance may serve to measure the
cordiality or the reserve which respectively distinguish two
"bows"--exactly alike as to movement, and equally courteous, the one
inviting confidence, the other repelling familiarity. The time, the
place, and the occasion, and the mutual relations of people, decide the
essential character of the appropriate bow. It must always be the
exponent of the nature and disposition of the individual, and of his
relation to the person whom he greets. No one has precisely the _same
manner_ for any two people of his acquaintance--that is, if he has any
vital manner at all. We are to others largely what they inspire us to
be, and only lifeless indifference reduces "manner" to one same
automatic manifestation. The life of a social greeting is in its
exclusive spirit, and though the variations of outward manner are
difficult to trace, it is a graceful and flattering thing to make this
specialty of manner felt in every greeting extended. Perhaps, after
all, it is the eye that controls this, as the spirit within controls
the eye.

In general, the manner of a greeting should be optimistic, free from
ungracious suspicion, and indicating a cheerful willingness to take
people at their best; and even when most sternly forbidding
intrusiveness, it should appear that the repulse is for good cause, and
is not merely the expression of a capricious and unfounded arrogance.
The latter quality, quite as often as not, characterizes the manner of
snobs toward people who are infinitely their superiors in all that
indicates character and breeding.

The "curtsey"--or "courtesy"--is a feature of the minuet