Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/46

38 does not make her appearance for thirty or forty minutes. “O dear!” she exclaims, coming in all out of breath, and exhibiting sundry defects in her toilet arrangements, “I hope I haven’t kept you waiting. I got so interested in a book, that I entirely forgot the time, until I heard the clock strike the hour at which I was to be here. I have had almost to throw my clothes on, and no doubt look like a perfect fright!” Again, the same young lady is making a visit, and becomes so much interested in her companions that she lets the hour at which she is to take her lesson in French or music go by, leaving her teacher to wait impatiently for her, and neglecting a matter of real importance for the enjoyment, it may be, of a little frivolous chit-chat. There is a time for all things, as well as a place for every thing, and the doing of things at proper times, and the keeping of things in their proper places, are essential to the orderly and efficient discharge of life’s most serious as well as most trivial duties.

The importance of orderly habits is never fully understood by the young who have friends to care for them and supply their wants. But there comes a time in life when duties, various and pressing, meet a woman at every turn—duties which it will be impossible for her to