APPOINTMENTS AND PUNCTUALITY.
When you make an appointment, always be exact in observing it. In some
places, and on some occasions, a quarter of an hour’s _grace_ is given.
This depends on custom, and it is always better not to avail yourself
of it. In Philadelphia it is necessary to be punctual to a second, for
there everybody breathes by the State-house clock If you make an
appointment to meet anywhere, your body must be in a right line with
the frame of the door at the instant the first stroke of the great
clock sounds. If you are a moment later, your character is gone. It is
useless to plead the evidence of your watch, or detention by a friend.
You read your condemnation in the action of the old fellows who, with
polite regard to your feelings, simultaneously pull out their vast
chronometers, as you enter. The tardy man is worse off than the
murderer. _He_ may be pardoned by one person, (the Governor); the
unpunctual is pardoned by none. _Haud inexpectus loquor._
If you make an appointment with another at your own house, you should
be invisible to the rest of the world, and consecrate your time solely
to him.
If you make an appointment with a lady, especially if it be upon a
promenade, or other public place, you must be there a little before the
time.
If you accept an appointment at the house of a public officer, or a man
of business, be very punctual, transact the affair with despatch, and
retire the moment it is finished.