Page:Side talks with girls (1895).djvu/55

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The Country Girl
43

so much that it should be an event, and then he will be certain that nobody else is getting your treasures, and that you are hoarding great expressions of affection for the time when you shall be his very own. The city girl, in keeping her sweet-heart at a little distance is very wise, and the country girl should be equally wise. I do not mean there should be no love-making—I like that old- fashioned word—but I do believe that a little too much freedom is a speck on the perfect fruit of love, and it is one which it is in the power of the girl to prevent.

WHEN SHE GOES TO TOWN

The country girl away from home is a bit troubled. She doubts her gowns, she doubts whether she knows the ways and manners of the people, and she is apt to be unhappy. She asked me the other day if a book of etiquette would help her. I say to her, "No." The great book of etiquette is the world, and it is read, like the smaller book, with the eyes. Having been properly trained you are not likely to make any great mistakes, and the smaller customs that differ in every town are easily acquired by watching what other people do and imitating them, only do not imitate the wrong people. If you are in a hotel, and the woman opposite you uses a toothpick and walks