HERBERT. Well, you may laugh, but the world has n't got used to goodclothes yet. The majority do not wear them with ease. People whomonly put on their best on rare and stated occasions step into anartificial feeling.

0UR NEXT D00R. I wonder if that's the reason the Parson finds it sodifficult to get hold of his congregation.

HERBERT. I don't know how else to account for the formality andvapidity of a set "party," where all the guests are clothed in amanner to which they are unaccustomed, dressed into a condition ofvivid self-consciousness. The same people, who know each otherperfectly well, will enjoy themselves together without restraint intheir ordinary apparel. But nothing can be more artificial than thebehavior of people together who rarely "dress up." It seemsimpossible to make the conversation as fine as the clothes, and so itdies in a kind of inane helplessness. Especially is this truthful in thecountry, where people have not obtained the mastery of their clothesthat those who live in the city have. It is really absurd, at thisstage of our civilization, that we should be so affected by such aninsignificant accident as dress. Perhaps Mandeville can tell uswhether this clothes panic prevails in the very ageder societies.