Don’t
Forget
To
Mind
Your
Manners…
‘Crash, Bang,’ went the screen door as Giselle came bursting
in. “Madame,” she shouted. “I have some awesome news!”
“Un moment, Giselle, I am busy with an important guest right
now, and I.…”
“Pardon moi, Madame,” replied Giselle, peeking into the
office and seeing that the black desk chair was indeed occupied, but from the
angle at which she stood, she could not discern by whom.
“You and I will speak later. In the meantime, you might what
to read up on polite manners. We are running a business here,
mademoiselle.”
“Qui, Madame,” Giselle said, as she turned on her heel to
ascend the stairs.
Behind her a stifled laugh came from the occupied chair,
followed by a suppressed titter from Madame Le Tron.
‘Well, speaking of rude,’ Giselle thought to herself. ‘Oh,
never mind, nothing is going to spoil this day!’ And, she bounded up the
stairs.
“Shall we continue? It appears from the look of things that
our partnership has been a success,” Madame went on.
“I do not think we could have been more successful,” replied
Madame’s guest delightedly.
Above stairs, Giselle turned to the old library on her left
and opened the door. Cobwebs hung on just about everything. She made her way over to the larger bookcase
on her right. It had been ever so long since she had been in this dusty old
room.
“I think we put my books over here somewhere,” she whispered
aloud. “Yes, there they are. Manners, I know she gave me a book on manners
before she…”
Giselle had not thought about her parents in a very long
time. Not that she didn’t think of them
often, it was just that she didn’t come here
to think about them anymore.
As she paused to gaze about the room, her eyes began to fog
a bit. All of their things were now her things. Madame had placed them for her
in this room after the crash. It was
such a kind and loving gesture. Giselle brushed a tear from her eye.
This old library had been her sanctuary. She came here to be close to them. Giselle removed a dust cover from her mother’s
red velvet settee and sat down. Before
she knew it, she fell fast asleep.
Below stairs, Madame Le Tron slowly strolled with her guest
through the screen door and onto the porch.
“I leave the rest to you! I did tell you that her dress color
is coral, qui?”
“Yes, Madame,” said the guest.
“Very well. Just let me know if there is anything else I can
do.”
“I will. Thank you very much for all of your help, Madame Le
Tron.” And with a nod of his head, Madame’s guest extended his right hand to her.
Madame extended hers as well, and they shook hands ‘good-bye.’
‘What a nice young man,’ she thought, ‘and what nice
manners. Oh, Mon Dieu! Manners – Giselle! I am sure she thought me rude.’ And with that, Madame hurried
back inside to find her young charge.
All was quiet as she climbed the stairs. To her left, the
old library’s door stood ajar. ‘Odd,’ she thought. ‘No one has used this room
in years. I suppose we would rather just
station ourselves in front of our computer screens. Guilty as charged!’ She
smiled to herself.
The old floorboards creaked as she stepped inside the
familiar space. Suddenly it all came rushing back. The car accident in France….
It was a wonder that Giselle had survived. What a nightmare for a four-year-old child.
The loss of Pierre and Simone….
A ‘sigh” came from the direction of the settee in the corner
of the room, and Madame could just make out Giselle’ s ever-present beret atop
her golden hair. Would she ever take
that hat off? So much like her father;
so much like Pierre. Madame could not remember him without that hat. ‘I wonder
if she will wear it to the prom?’
‘The prom…manners -- of course,’ thought Madame. She made
her way over to the large bookcase to the left of the great bay window, knocking
down cobwebs as she went.
“Ah, here it is -- Etiquette
Pour Une Petite Fille, by Simone Montiner,” said Madame aloud.
“My ma’ mere wrote that book?” asked Giselle sleepily.
“Qui, Mon Cherie, for you, just after you were born,”
answered Madame crossing the room to sit
down beside her on the red velvet settee.
“Regardez.” Madame
opened the front cover of the tiny book , Je
t'aimerai toujours mon petite enfant …
“She
loved you so, as did your father. It seems long ago now, Mon Cherie, but they
are here with us now, as they will be with you always.”
Madame
handed the small leather-bound book to Giselle. She put her arm round the young
woman’s shoulder as they leaned back into the corner of the settee.
“When
you were just une petite fille, you would often come into this old library at
bedtime, with a favorite book, cuddle up on this settee, and fall asleep. I
would then call on one of the re-cycletron’s to
Giselle
sighed deeply.
“You
are a fine young lady, Giselle. Your parents would be vey proud of you, as am
I, Mon Cherie.”
Giselle
held up her mother’s book and, pushing back a lock of her golden blonde hair,
teasingly said, “Despite my manners?”
“It
never hurts to review the rules. After all, your prom date, Nate, has
exceptional manners, and when you rudely burst in on us today, I didn’t want
him to change his mind about asking you,” winked Madame Le Tron.
“Wait! That was Nate in your office this afternoon?”
“Qui,
Giselle, with awesome News! You are going
to the prom!”
“But,
I don’t understand. How did you know? I mean, why was he here?”
“Well,
let’s just say a well-mannered gentlemen knows the rules and what color corsage
might be just right.”
“Touché,
Madame!” giggled Giselle, as she snuggled a bit closer.
‘Well
played, Nate,’ thought Madame Le Tron.
Ah,
yes, all will be well in the Wonderful World of Le Tron!
Au
Revoir, See you next Friday at 3pm Central,
Madame
Le Tron
Note:
Etiquette, understanding the rules, and a little research go along way. We, at Le Tron, learned this past week that
each of the groups we belong to on Linked-in have a different set of rules for
postings through discussions.
We
are grateful to one of our favorite role models, Sue Mongeon, for her gentle
reminder –
On
04/15/13 7:10 PM, Sue Mongeon wrote:
--------------------
For those of us in the Etsy Professional Shop
Owners group, Stevie Sacks frequently (I think monthly) puts out discussion
titles, things like, "Post all your Blog links here," and "Post
all your Treasuries here," in order to give us a unified location for
these and to keep from having a gazillion different discussions going, or even
having to post your own promotions threads. Anytime you want to see what
discussions are out there, or you want to find one of these threads to jump on,
click the GROUPS link on the Linked In homepage or any page of LI, and select a
group you belong to. When you are on their page, you will see the DISCUSSIONS
link. Click on that and a list of Discussions that are active will show up.
You
can find any of these posting opportunities that way.
Sorry
if there has been confusion. I realize that not all groups have the same rules
that this one does, so it can be confusing when one group lets you promote
under DISCUSSIONS and another says it is taboo.
Sue M
As
always, please share with us below discussion, etiquette and gentle reminders from
which we all might benefit:
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