The Way of a Lady: Rule Four

A Lady is Quiet.
Her voice invites more Peace than less.

Squealing. Screeching. Howling. Screaming. Berating. None of these qualities describe a Lady. The society relies on its Gentlemen and Ladies as an anchor against the chaos that society has evolved to order. Each of the above terms of unwarranted volume is a chaotic response (hence unwarranted) to a communication or event. Too many Ladies think it is a sign of some refinement to show a skittishness and a pronounced sensitivity to the events that seem to ask for her response. To be refined is to be controlled and not explosive. In fact, a social set will find that, when an actually chaotic moment has come upon them, that a screaming woman becomes the immediately disliked replacement. It is an additional chaos, an addition of hysterics, and the desire to put a muzzle on the woman precedes the desire to truly resist the initial cause. It is perhaps, like the desire some feel to put copious explanation marks in their written descriptions. They wish to appear "alive" and they only inflate the currency of human expression. The excess is meaningless regarding the item so punctuated. But it does have a decidedly unLadylike meaning. Exceed the opportunity for laughter and it becomes squealing. Exceed the need for a firm correction and it becomes berating. All that exceeds the needs of the 1] joke or 2] error has been added not because the joke or error demanded it. The woman's pursuit of attention thinks that it has found in the joke or error a place to slip the rest of society a heady reminder that she exists and she, not the joke or error, has needs. She gets a splinter so she pulls the fire alarm. A Lady will know herself and her world with some degree of accuracy. A Lady will not allow herself to sound desperate for recognition and will labor to develop a sense of the ordinate value of a social event. The event will get from a Lady just what it deserves. If a Lady screams it had better be the Creature of the Black Lagoon and not a mouse.