Tenet #26 from 101 Tenets for Ladies and Gentlemen: A Southern Guide to Good Behavior

Tenet #26: Ladies and Gentlemen should spend their time and attention on the art of expressing themselves with candor and grace.

As Master Joseph and I prepare for our upcoming appearance at the Studio @ Cherry Lane Theatre this summer, we are reminded of this most important tenet in our cohesive collection of rules to guide our behavior. One may wonder when I, a simple Southern debutante of privileged upbringing who has died before her time and come to be trapped in the body of a homosexual man living in New York City, have the opportunity to compile my list of tenets. I recite them to myself in my spare time, of which I seem to have an abundance.

Master Joseph has not had the opportunity as of yet to benefit from a study of my tenets for proper behavior; many of the opportunities I take to recite them occur when he is occupied with something I would not deem appropriate, such as the drinking of liquor or the cavorting with other "gentlemen." He has scheduled a holiday for us: three nights stay in a place called Provincetown, Massachusetts. This town is in a land called New England, a place I had only heard tell of in my day. And though I have never been to this town (which Master Joseph so flippantly refers to as "P-Town"), it does sound like a town in which I may feel right at home. I fear, however, what Master Joseph's intentions may be. Hopefully, the temptation of liquor and cavorting will not be an issue in such a place.

Though I do not know how, I hope at some point Master Joseph will have the chance to be exposed to some of my deeper wisdom and begin to learn the value of proper conduct. Until that day, I will continue to recite my tenets to myself. I may be little more than a spirit now, a ghost of my former lovely self, forced to silently witness this unfamiliar era through the eyes of someone fraught with qualities that are quite foreign to me, but I will not let that drain the will out of me to maintain myself as a proper member of society. I will hold to that for eternity.

Yours,

Miss Magnolia Beatrice Devareux Beaumont, Debutante