“If proposer is defeated, he may throw up his hand or call a new deal, just as he shall prefer, or as circumstances may dictate.

But if he is elected, he must now drop into the beautiful French custom of fetching a bouquet every day. His first bouquet must be entirely white; after that, a faint shade of color (red) must be added daily. Let the tint deepen gradually day by day, and with such careful precision that there shall still remain a perceptible trace of white down to the very day before the wedding. On that day the last bouquet is delivered—and it must be absolutely red—no suggestion of other color in it anywhere.”

—Mark Twain (1835–1910), From an Unfinished Burlesque of Books on Ettiquette, published posthumously as Letters from the Earth, 1962.