Social Courage | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 22, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 16.

Social Courage.

ALL are not ladies who wear a woman's dress. When the old beau in Sheridan's comedy said, as he bowed himself out of the parlor, "Ladies, I leave my character in your hands!" he knew his dear friends would tear it to tatters, before the sound of the closing hall door announced his departure.

Sir Charles Grandison and Sir Roger de Coverly may have been a little stiff, not to say pompous, and their old-school manners would be too deliberate for this fast age. But neither they, nor their wives and daughters, ever found fault with host or hostess, nor would they have listened for a moment to any one censuring the person whose hospitality they were accepting.

One of the descendants of these courtly old gentlemen still lives. She is a lady, and resides in Washington. The other day, as we learn from the New York Sun, she astounded a group of female visitors by her courageous rebuke of their bad breeding.

Among the callers on her reception day were several ladies who, on the previous evening, had attended a large party given by a millionaire and his wife. The party was criticised by these callers and its hostess picked to pieces. In a lull of the conversation, they turned to the lady on whom they were calling, and appealed to her to confirm their criticisms, in such a direct way that she was forced to speak.

"Well, ladies," she answered, with that repose of manner and calmness of tone which are such excellent things in women, "I have never eaten of her bread and salt, and, of course, know nothing of her as a hostess. But if I had accepted her hospitality, I should know nothing unkind of her either as a hostess or a woman."

The courage of the lady, though magnificent, did not cause the visitors to prolong their call.—Youth's Companion.