with the viands, and with good manners. You open your mouth
only to admit edibles and to bellow to the waiters. Your sole
object is yourself. You drink wine without asking your
neighbour to join you; and if he should be so silly as to ask
you to hand him some specified dish, you blandly comply; but
in the passage to him, you transfer the whole of its contents
to your own plate. There is no halving in these matters.
Rapacity, roaring, and rapidity are the three requisites for
dining during a journey. When you have resumed your seat in
the coach, you are as bland as a morning in spring.

Never assume any unreal importance in a stage-coach, founded
on the ignorance of your fellows, and their inability to
detect it. It is excessively absurd, and can only gratify a
momentary and foolish vanity; for, whenever you might make
use of your importance, you would probably be at once
discovered. There is an admirable paper upon this point in
one of Johnson's Adventurers.

The friendship which has subsisted between travellers
terminates with the journey. When you get out, a word, a bow,
and the most unpleasant act of life is finished and
forgotten.

CHAPTER XI. BALLS.

Invitations to a ball should be issued at least ten days in
advance, in order to give an opportunity to the men to clear
away engagements; and to women, time to prepare the artillery
of their toilet. Cards of invitation should be sent--not