Social Niceties

What's that? asked the young girl
of her grandmother.  Deportment,
my dear, it is a matter of acquiring
good motor skills, standing tall,
straight and proud, coupled
with a grounding in the social graces,
called etiquette, to ensure a
young woman is aware and capable of
comporting herself competently
and with graceful assurance.
It is why families of good breeding
and social standing sent their
daughters off to special schools,
to gain those skills, much admired
and expected through exposure to
finishing schools abroad.  Polite
society demanded it from that
social class.  Without it, there
could be no grand coming-out
parties, no debutante seasonal balls,
introducing marriageable young
men and women to one another.
Oh, said she, how elaborately artificial
life must have been back in the day.