Much to my surprise yesterday I heard myself say to someone whom I have only just met that I recognized her good breeding – an abrupt compliment to a young woman made all the more astonishing by the fact that it subsequently arose from a brief enquiry into her ancestry that I was perfectly correct in my initial summation! It was a two-fold reward: one, that people of good breeding do in fact exist; and, two, that the breeding itself was so palpable – as pleasant as the aroma from a fresh rose, as gentle as the offered hand of a charming new acquaintance, as stimulating as a conversation with a learned person. I think that pretty well covers all the relevant odoriferous, tactile and intellectual sensibilities. No doubt there are far more acute methods of determining someone’s breeding but I consider the talent akin to identifying the magnificence of a Steinway grand piano upon completion of the first movement; viz., as plain as daylight.
