True class is easiest to recognise when there is no audience to impress and no advantage to gain. Class becomes visible when the reward disappearsNearly anyone can be charming towards a person they hope to impress. It is remembering that another person’s mistake does not create a temporary licence to treat them as smaller. Class does not require someone to accept poor treatment with a smile, but it does ask them not to use a legitimate complaint as permission for contempt. True class does not mean making yourself smallerThere is an old and unhelpful version of class that asks people, especially women and those with less formal power, to remain pleasant while others cross their boundaries.