What is a would-be-gentleman to do?
Would it be of any use writing to the fashionable novelist:-- How we might, all of us, be Gentlemen.
"Dear Mr.Fashionable Novelist (or should it be Miss ?),--Before going to my tailor, I venture to write to you on a subject of some importance.

I am fairly well educated, of good family and address, and, so my friends tell me, of passable appearance.

I yearn to become a gentleman.

If it is not troubling you too much, would you mind telling me how to set about the business?
What socks and ties ought I to wear?
Do I wear a flower in my button-hole, or is that a sign of a coarse mind?
How many buttons on a morning coat show a beautiful nature?
Does a stand-up collar with a tennis shirt prove that you are of noble descent, or, on the contrary, stamp you as a _parvenu_?
If answering these questions imposes too great a tax on your time, perhaps you would not mind telling me how you yourself know these things.

Who is your authority, and when is he at home?
I should apologize for writing to you but that I feel you will sympathize with my appeal.