ntlemen wear the usual morning dress. Ladies wear the _demi-toilet_,
with or without bonnets.

At five o'clock tea (or coffee), the equipage is on a side table,
together with plates of thin sandwiches, and of cake. The pouring of the
tea and passing of refreshments are usually done by some members of the
family or friends, without the assistance of servants, where the number
assembled is small; for, as a rule, the people who frequent these social
gatherings, care more for social intercourse than for eating and
drinking.

MORE FORMAL ENTERTAINMENTS.

Evening parties and balls are of a much more formal character than the
entertainments that have been mentioned. They require evening dress. Of
late years, however, evening dress is almost as much worn at grand
dinners as at balls and evening parties, only the material is not of so
diaphanous a character. Lace and muslin are out of place. Invitations to
evening parties should be sent from a week to two weeks in advance, and
in all cases they should be answered immediately.

BALLS.

The requisites for a successful ball are good music and plenty of people
to dance. An English writer says, "The advantage of the ball is, that it
brings young people together for a sensible and innocent recreation, and
takes them away from silly, if not from bad ones; that it gives them
exercise, and that the general effect of the beauty, elegance and
brilliancy of a ball is to elevate rather than to deprave the mind." It
may be that the round dance is monopolizing the ball room to a too great
extent, and it is possible that these may be so frequent as to mar the
pleasure of some persons who do not care to participate in them, to the
exclusion of "square" and other dances. America should not be the only
nation that confines ball room dancing to waltzes, as is done in some of
our cities. There should be an equal number of waltzes and quadrilles,
with one or two contra dances, which would give an opportunity to those
who object (or whose parents object) to round dances to appear on the
floor.

PREPARATIONS FOR A BALL.

There should be dressing-rooms for ladies and gentlemen, with a servant
or servants to each. There should be cards with the names of the invited
guests upon them, or checks with duplicates to be given to the guests
ready to pin upon the wraps of each one. Each dressing-room should be
supplied with a complete set of toilet articles. It is customary to
decorate the house e