_Ambassador_ A man, just a little below God.
_Attaché_ The lowest rung of the ladder.
_Blunder_ How absurd! Why, _never_!...
_Chancellery_ The barn-yard where he is plucked.
_Chief_ The cock of the walk.
_Colleagues_ A question merely of time and place.
_Court_ Where one learns to make courtesies.
_Decorations_ The balm for all woes.
_Dinners_ The surest road to success.
_Disponsibility_ The Styx, whence no one returns.
_Esprit_ (_de corps_) The corps is there, but where is the _esprit_?
_Etiquette_ The Ten Commandments.
_Finesse_ A narrow lane where two can walk abreast.
_Friendships_ Ships that pass in the night.
_Gotha_ (_almanack_) The Bible of a Diplomat.
_Highness_ _His_, _Her_, make a deep courtesy.
_Ignoramus_ A person who does not agree with you.
_Innuendo_ An obscure side-light of truth.
_Joke_ Something beneath the dignity of a diplomat
to notice.
_Knowledge (private)_ _News_ which every one already knows.
_Legation_ Apartments to let.
_Letters_ (_de créance_) The first impression.
_Letters_ (_de rappel_) The last illusion.
_Majesté_ (_lèse_) Too awful to think of.
_Majesties_ Human beings with royal faults.
_Nobodies_ People to be avoided like poison.
_Opulence_ When in service.
_Pension_ Too small to be seen with the naked eye.
_Poverty_ When out of service.
_Quo_ (_status_) Diplomatic expression, meaning in French,
_Une jambe en l'air_.
_Ruse_ A carefully disguised thought as transparent
as a soap-bubble.
_Secretary_ Furniture easily moved.
_Traditions_ A door always open for refuge.
_Traités_ (_de paix_) A series of dinners paid for by a lavish
government.
_Uniform_ A bestarred and beribboned livery.
_Visits_ The most important duty of a diplomat.
_Wisdom_ Good to have, but easily dispensed with.
_Xpectations_ A tree which seldom bears fruit.
_Yawn_ What a diplomat does over his _rapports_.
_Zeal_ Something a diplomat ought never to have too
much of.