he same,
and so on around the table.

Both host and hostess should have been able to keep up an interest in
the conversation at table, and not to betray the slightest anxiety as
to the success of the affair. Host or hostess should never make
disparaging remarks as to the quality of dishes; and still less should
they refer to their costliness, and should know beforehand as to the
edge of the carving-knife, as the use of a steel is not permissible.

The foregoing rules will be found to embody the simplest and most
correct method of serving a dinner _a la American_ [Transcriber's
Note: a l'americaine].

Dinner Dress.

Ladies dress elegantly, and in any manner, or color, that fancy or
becomingness may dictate. Corsages, however, while open at the neck in
either square, or heart-shaped fashion, are not as low-cut as for a
ball-dress, while the sleeves are usually of demi-length. Gloves are
always worn, and not removed until seated at the table. They are not
resumed afterward unless dancing follows.

Very young ladies wear less expensive toilets of white or delicately
tinted wools, or light-weight silks.

Gentlemen are expected to wear the conventional evening dress. To be
gloved or not to be gloved is a vexed question with them. It is well
to be provided with a pair of light gloves, and let your own
self-possession and the example of others decide for you at the
moment. A gentleman faultlessly gloved cannot go far wrong.

Coming and Going.

Promptness in arriving is a virtue, but remember that you have no
claim upon the time of your host or hostess, until ten or fifteen
minutes before the hour appointed, and, if you inadvertently arrive
too soon you should remain in the dressing-room until very near the
hour.

Departure is from half to three-quarters of an hour after the repast,
and no matter what the entertainment, eleven o'clock should find every
dinner guest departed.

Functions.

The practice of calling the ordinary reception, ball, party or dinner
a "function" is simply a bad habit. It comes to us from England, where
a confusion of ideas has made this word the popular synonym for any
social happening. The error in England is perhaps pardonable, for the
reason that very many of the society performances there are actually
functions, and in course of time the unlearned and the careless have
come to call every society performance a function. The royal
"drawing-rooms" (so-called) are functions, and the