pretty essential, which may be
made as ornamental as is liked. At supper cold meats are usually
served, and cake is taken with the fruit, while vegetables, unless
those served in salad form, are omitted.

The Lunch Table.

In cities, the lunch takes the place of the twelve o'clock dinner,
just as the late city dinner replaces the supper, dear to country
hearts.

The table for lunch is laid much like that for supper, the dishes
being all placed at the table at one time, and the ladies of the
family, for to them it is usually devoted, gathering around it without
the formality of a servant.

Signs of Ill-Breeding.

The order of laying the table, and serving the dishes having been
given, it now remains to give some information as to the conduct of
those at the table. This is rendered more necessary from the fact that
many well-dressed, and apparently well-bred people, sin so grievously
against the simplest laws of table etiquette, as not only to display
their own want of breeding, but to actually annoy those about them by
their sins of omission and commission.

The most important table implements are knife, fork, and spoon, and
with these we begin, in the order of their prominence.

The Fork.

The fork having, as one writer happily suggests, "subjugated the
knife," demands our first attention. The subjugation of the knife is
so complete in this country, England, France and Austria that any
attempt to give the knife undue prominence at table is looked upon as
a glaring offense against good taste. This aversion to the use of the
knife probably arose first from the more agreeable sensation to the
lips that is produced by the delicate tines of a fork in contrast to
the broad blade of a knife. Also the fact that the steel of which
knives were, and are still, to some extent, made, imparts, by contact,
a disagreeable flavor to many articles of food.

In the use of the knife and fork daintiness should be cultivated.
They should be held with the handles resting in the palms of the hands
when cutting, or separating food; but, in conveying food to the mouth,
the handle of the fork should not be kept against the palm, as to do
so would give it an awkward appearance in lifting to the lips. Fork
and knife should be held firmly but without any apparent exertion of
strength.

Never strive to load the fork with meat and vegetables at the same
time. To do so is to commit an offence against manners and digestion,
and nev