of one he does not know, to speak to a lady with whom he has only a slight
acquaintance, since visits are not paid quite so casually to ladies who
are themselves visitors. Upon a gentleman's entering a box it is
obligatory for whoever is sitting behind the lady to whom the arriving
gentleman's visit is addressed, to relinquish his chair. Another point of
etiquette is that a gentleman must never leave the ladies of his own box
alone. Occasionally it happens that the gentlemen in Mrs. Gilding's box,
for instance, have all relinquished their places to visitors and have
themselves gone to Mrs. Worldly's or Mrs. Jones' or Mrs. Town's boxes.
Mrs. Gilding's guests must, from the vantage point of the Worldly, Jones
or Town boxes, keep a watchful eye on their hostess and instantly return
to her support when they see her visitors about to leave, even though the
ladies whom they are momentarily visiting be left to themselves. It is of
course the duty of the other gentlemen who came to the opera with Mrs.
Worldly, Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Town to hurry to them.

A gentleman must never stay in any box that he does not belong in, after
the lowering of the lights for the curtain. Nor, in spite of cartoons to
the contrary, does good taste permit conversation during the performance
or during the overture. Box holders arriving late or leaving before the
final curtain do so as quietly as possible and always without speaking.


=A "BRILLIANT OPERA NIGHT"=

A "brilliant opera night," which one often hears spoken of (meaning merely
that all the boxes are occupied, and that the ladies are more elaborately
dressed than usual) is generally a night when a leader of fashion such as
Mrs. Worldly, Mrs. Gilding, or Mrs. Toplofty, is giving a ball; and most
of the holders of the parterre boxes are in ball dresses, with an unusual