he visit we
pay to a friend in town where we have business or desire a pleasure trip,
and do not propose to have it cost us much of anything. We force
hospitality on our acquaintances in order to save hotel bills. They know
it, and they feel about it just exactly as we would in their places--that
is, that it is an imposition on good nature and a mean and selfish thing
to do.

"We gave up our house and went to boarding simply because my health and my
husband's salary were inadequate to the demands made upon them by our
out-of-town relatives and acquaintances, who used us as a restaurant and
hotel. There was seldom a week when we did not give ten or twelve meals
and two or three nights lodging to people better able to pay for them than
we were to furnish them. So we gave up housekeeping." This is an actual
experience.

WEEK-END VISITS.

The "house-party," as the week-end visit is now often styled, is a
comparatively recent addition to social entertainments. It is a fashion
imported from England, and a very good one. It is the "from Saturday to
Monday" visit, and so universally recognized that during the summer extra
trolley cars and railroad trains are in use to convey resorters and their
guests to summer homes in the country.

Invitations to a house-party are given several weeks in advance, and great
care should be taken to invite those who are congenial and will "mix
well," since where a few are thrown together congeniality is absolutely
essential to success. The invitations are informal; the length of the
visit definitely fixed; even the train by which the visitor is expected to
arrive and leave is mentioned, that there may be no misunderstanding.

[MANNERS AND SOCIAL CUSTOMS 711]

The Invitation.--One may write to her friend: "Won't you give us the
pleasure of entertaining you from Friday afternoon to Monday? The 3:45
train will bring you here in time for tea. There is to be a musical in the
evening; an automobile ride is planned for Saturday afternoon, to show you
the beauties of our vicinity, and there is to be the usual Saturday
evening dance at the hotel. A train leaves here at 10:30 Monday morning,
which will take you back to the city in ample time for lunch. Hoping to
have the happiness of seeing you on Friday, I am," etc., etc.

This not only suggests to your friend at what time she is expected to
arrive and depart, but gives her an idea of what she should bring with her
in the way of clothes. One s