ibe to the taste of Mrs.
Temple and my mantuamaker; for, after having declared that I would not
have any foil or tinsel about me, they fixed upon the dress I have
described.

[Inclosure to her niece]

_My Dear Betsey_:

I believe I once promised to give you an account of that kind of
visiting called a ladies' rout. There are two kinds; one where a lady
sets apart a particular day in the week to see company. These are held
only five months in the year, it being quite out of fashion to be seen
in London during the summer. When a lady returns from the country she
goes round and leaves a card with all her acquaintance, and then sends
them an invitation to attend her routs during the season. The other kind
is where a lady sends to you for certain evenings, and the cards are
always addressed in her own name, both to gentlemen and ladies. The
rooms are all set open, and card tables set in each room, the lady of
the house receiving her company at the door of the drawing-room, where a
set number of courtesies are given and received, with as much order as
is necessary for a soldier who goes through the different evolutions of
his exercise. The visitor then proceeds into the room without appearing
to notice any other person, and takes her seat at the card table.

"Nor can the muse her aid impart,
Unskilled in all the terms of art,
Nor in harmonious numbers put
The deal, the shuffle, and the cut.
Go, Tom, and light the ladies up,
It must be one before we sup."

At these parties it is usual for each lady to play a rubber, as it is
termed, when you must lose or win a few guineas. To give each a fair
chance, the lady then rises and gives her seat to another set. It is no
unusual thing to have your rooms so crowded that not more than half the
company can sit at once, yet this is called _society and polite life_.
They treat their company with coffee, tea, lemonade, orgeat, and cake. I
know of but one agreeable circumstance attending these parties, which
is, that you may go away when you please without disturbing anybody. I
was early in the winter invited to Madame de Pinto's, the Portuguese
Minister's. I went accordingly. There were about two hundred persons
present. I knew not a single lady but by sight, having met them at
Court; and it is an established rule, though you were to meet as often
as three nights in the week, never to speak together, or know each other
unless particularly introduced.