--Dress is a foolish thing, says _Lord Chesterfield_; yet it
is a foolish thing not to be well dressed.
XVI.
You cannot dine, or visit after dinner, in an undress frock, or without
a bag to your hair; the hair _en queue_, or a little cape to your coat,
would be considered an unpardonable liberty. Military men have an
advantage above all others in point of dress, in France; a regimental or
military coat carries a man with a _bonne grace_ into all companies,
with or without a bag to his hair; it is of all others the properest
dress for a stranger in France, on many accounts.
XVII.
In France it is not customary to drink to persons at table, nor to drink
wine after dinner: when the dessert is taken away, so is the wine;--an
excellent custom, and worthy of being observed by all nations.
XVIII.
It is wrong to be led into any kind of conversation, but what is
absolutely necessary, with the common, or indeed the middling class of
people in France. They never fail availing themselves of the least
condescension in a stranger, to ask a number of impertinent questions,
and to conclude, you answer them civilly, that they are your
equals.
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