carriage will secure you from all inconvenience, and you will
be conferring a real benefit.

CHAPTER V. THE ENTRANCE INTO SOCIETY.

Women, particularly women a little on the decline, are those
who make the reputation of a young man. When the lustre of
their distinction begins to fade, a slight feeling of less
wonted leisure, perhaps a little spite, makes them observe
attentively those who surround them. Eager to gain new
admirers, they encourage the first steps of a _debutant_ in
the career of society, and exert themselves to fit him to do
honour to their patronage.

A young man, therefore, in entering the world, cannot be too
attentive to conciliate the goodwill of women. Their
approbation and support will serve him instead of a thousand
good qualities. Their judgment dispenses with fortune,
talent, and even intelligence. "Les hommes font les lois: les
femmes font les reputations."

The desire of pleasing is, of course, the basis of social
connexion. Persons who enter society with the intention of
producing an effect, and of being distinguished, however
clever they may be, are never agreeable. They are always
tiresome, and often ridiculous. Persons, who enter life with
such pretensions, have no opportunity for improving
themselves and profiting by experience. They are not in a
proper state to _observe_: indeed, they look only for the
effect which they produce, and with that they are not often