Page 59 of The Cheapside Runners
“Very good, Miss Violet. Do the same for being mean.”
That one did not take long at all. “They will be mean back.”
“Very good. Now expand on that.”
“They might be meaner than you… or more powerful… or more vindictive.”
“Exactly. They saythe whisper of misfortune is louder than the trumpet of joy.Bad tidings travelmuchfaster and farther than good ones, so being unkind, or mean, is more likely to harm you than not. After our lessons on gossip at the modiste, that much should be clear.”
She paused a moment, then opened a box that was sitting unobtrusively on the table by her chair, and pulled out a stack of coins, one for each lady.
They all looked the coin over and noticed that each sidewas engraved with a word pair, indicating they supposed one principle: Kindness/Reciprocation vs Unkindness/Retaliation.
“This coin suggests you make your disposition lean towards kindness. In other words, try to make kindness your natural habit, and others will most likely reciprocate. Make meanness your natural habit, and others will naturally retaliate. Remember the golden rule, which most think is Christian, but nearly every ancient culture has some flavour of it:Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”
They all looked thoughtful except for Jane, who looked slightly smug.
Mrs Black said, “Remember this, and remember it well. I said to make it yournormalhabit, not youronlyhabit. Not everybody is your friend. Bullies see kindness as weakness. Not everybody follows the same rules. You shouldtrybeing kind, but if that fails—”
She stared around the room until Jane finally answered timidly. “Flip over the coin.”
“Exactly. Kindness is a type of strength, but not the only kind. As you know by now, you must defend yourself from physical attacks. Verbal attacks are no less troublesome, and you must guard yourself from them as zealously as you defend your person.”
“Is this coming back to balance,” Miss Violet asked.
“It very much is.”
Mary ventured, “You said there are five coins, but hundreds of rules of propriety. Are you saying many rules will belong to one of the coins.”
“Most of them will,” she replied. “Miss Red, I suspect you have many of the rules in your head. Can you list somespecificrules from those tedious books that might well be summarised with this coin?”
Mary thought a moment, and finally offered, “Do not speakill of others, especially in public or mixed company; or Avoid interrupting someone while they are speaking.”
Kitty surprised everyone by contributing, “Offer assistance where appropriate, especially to those of lesser fortune or standing.”
The rest chimed in with many, such as Show patience with those who may breach etiquette due to ignorance, not malice; Do not gloat over one’s supposed superiority.”
Mrs Black laughed. “Enough! You get the idea. Let us have luncheon.”
~~~~~
The afternoon went much smoother. While a considerable number of rules fit underUnderstand and respect the social structures(in a balanced manner, of course), once they had a structure to tie their understanding instead of a lot of arbitrary rules, it all made a sort of sense. There may be more rules to learn for some than others, but the basic ideas were clear enough. Mrs Black went through the rules for how to manage guests in the home, all of which mostly fit under the kindness coin. Managing conversation at the dinner table was the same. Putting upstart-social-climbing-parvenus or people who insulted you in their place might be a useful skill from the other side of the coin. Mrs Black did not lookdirectlyat Jane in that case, but the message was clear enough.
Naturally some might have to learn more rules than others. Knowing how to introduce the wife of an earl to a duke was not a skill most of them were likely to require, but should it ever come up, even though such things were almost entirely arbitrary, they could be learnt if they could be tied to a coin.
The coin forExercise Restraint and Self-Controlwas fairly obvious given what they had learnt onBrutality Dayand from observing the wolves hunting the lambs the first couple of days.
In similar ways, they dispatched coins for modesty and conduct, reputations and impropriety, and the like.
At the end of the day, much to everyone’s surprise, they took two of the driest, dustiest deportment manuals off a shelf and went through them. They learnt that a lot of the rules were quite good, and all of the good ones could be tied to one of their coins. They also found a fair number that were capricious, idiotic, or nonsensical. Mrs Black suggested they could disregard them, but to do so with full awareness.
As the final nail in the coffin, they took Fordyce’s Sermons and tore it to pieces. Hardly anything in the book fit any of the coins, and even Mary was tempted to throw it in the fire.
21.Dancing Ghosts
The ladies were allowed to sleep in late the next day and had a leisurely breakfast.
Once they were in the drawing room, Mrs Black said, “Today we shall have calling hours. To be fair, I should warn you that most of your callers are actors of a sort—not the type that will appear on stage, but men and women under my employ who will attempt to teach you something. Some will be kind and welcoming. Some will be gossiping harridans. Some will be snakes in the grass. We shall learn to deal with them.”
