Chaperons, even in their days of glory, were almost never able to enforce morality; what they did was to force immorality to be discreet. This is no small contribution.

In the column Judith Martin answers etiquette questions contributed by her readers and writes short essays on problems of manners or clarifies the essential qualities of politeness.

Judith Martin (née Perlman born September 13 1938) better known by the pen name Miss Manners is an American journalist author and etiquette authority.