CHAPTER VIII. APPOINTMENTS AND PUNCTUALITY.

When you make an appointment, always be exact in observing
it. In some places, and on some occasions, a quarter of an
hour's _grace_ is given. This depends on custom, and it is
always better not to avail yourself of it. In Philadelphia it
is necessary to be punctual to a second, for there everybody
breathes by the State-house clock If you make an appointment
to meet anywhere, your body must be in a right line with the
frame of the door at the instant the first stroke of the
great clock sounds. If you are a moment later, your character
is gone. It is useless to plead the evidence of your watch,
or detention by a friend. You read your condemnation in the
action of the old fellows who, with polite regard to your
feelings, simultaneously pull out their vast chronometers, as
you enter. The tardy man is worse off than the murderer. _He_
may be pardoned by one person, (the Governor); the unpunctual
is pardoned by none. _Haud inexpectus loquor._

If you make an appointment with another at your own house,
you should be invisible to the rest of the world, and
consecrate your time solely to him.

If you make an appointment with a lady, especially if it be
upon a promenade, or other public place, you must be there a
little before the time.

If you accept an appointment at the house of a public
officer, or a man of business, be very punctual, transact the
affair with despatch, and retire the moment it is finished.