drop a handkerchief at sb's feet

The dropping would take place during formal promenades, during which men and women of a similar social class would walk up and down and eye each other. The woman would drop a handkerchief, usually made of lace, in the path of a man whom she admired, and then she would wait to see if he picked it up. If he did, she would know that he was willing to deepen the aquaintance, and a meeting could be arranged.

Contrex has it--although the situation didn't have to be ritualized and formal. In the Drop The Handkerchief years, a girl was not supposed to show unseemly interest in a member of the opposite sex.

Dropping a handkerchief--a clean one, of course--was an "accident", not the action of a brazen hussy.

I'm sure in high schools and colleges all over the world you can find young women dropping handkerchiefs or calculus books or hockey pucks, always by accident.

Thanks, two great answers.

It didn't have to be a handkerchief; other items such as combs and brooches were employed in this way.

Contrex--

Different times, different paraphenalia.

The Mating Dance is universal.