Too often the paint is laid on thickly--perhaps too thickly--over indifferent material, and the first shock or scratch makes it scale and flake off.
As the test of the genuineness of the polish must be its durability, so intimacy is the standard by which we may judge of the finish of the so-called well-bred man or woman.

If the refinement be ingrain, the familiarity which inevitably breeds contempt will never intrude itself.
To come down to everyday particulars: One of the unwarrantable familiarities is to enter a friend's house without ringing her door-bell,--unless you have been especially requested to do so.

No ground of intimacy on which you and your friend may stand justifies this liberty.

The housekeepers are few and far between who, in their inmost souls, will not resent this invasion of their domain.

It argues an enormous amount of self-conceit on your part when you fancy that you are considered so entirely one of the family that your unannounced presence will _never_ prove an unwelcome intrusion.
In country places neighbors contract the habit of "running in" to see one another.