card, come back with the
message "Mrs. Jones is out" can not fail to make the visitor feel
rebuffed. Once a card has been admitted, the visitor _must_ be admitted
also, no matter how inconvenient receiving her may be. You may send a
message that you are dressing but will be very glad to see her if she can
wait ten minutes. The visitor can either wait or say she is pressed for
time. But if she does not wait, then _she_ is rather discourteous.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance always to leave directions at
the door such as, "Mrs. Jones is not at home." "Miss Jones will be home at
five o'clock," "Mrs. Jones will be home at 5.30," or Mrs. Jones "is at
home" in the library to intimate friends, but "not at home" in the
drawing-room to acquaintances. It is a nuisance to be obliged to remember
either to turn an "in" and "out" card in the hail, or to ring a bell and
say, "I am going out," and again, "I have come in." But whatever plan or
arrangement you choose, no one at your front door should be left in doubt
and then repulsed. It is not only bad manners, it is bad housekeeping.

=THE OLD-FASHIONED DAY AT HOME=

It is doubtful if the present generation of New Yorkers knows what a day
at home is! But their mothers, at least, remember the time when the
fashionable districts were divided into regular sections, wherein on a
given day in the week, the whole neighborhood was "at home." Friday sounds
familiar as the day for Washington Square! And was it Monday for lower
Fifth Avenue? At all events, each neighborhood on the day of its own,
suggested a local fete. Ladies in visiting dresses with trains and bonnets
and nose-veils and tight gloves, holding card cases, tripped demurely into
this house, out of that, and again into another; and there were always
many broughams and victorias slowly "exercising" up and down, and very
smart footmen standing with maroon or tan or fur rugs over their arms in
front of Mrs. Wellborn's house or Mrs. Oldname's, or the big house of Mrs.
Toplofty at the corner of Fifth Avenue. It must have been enchanting to be
a grown person in those days! Enchanting also were the C-spring victorias,
as was life in general that was taken at a slow carriage pace and not at
the motor speed of to-day. The "day at home" is still in fashion in
Washington, and it is ardently to be hoped that it also flourishes in many
cities and towns throughout the country or that it will be revived, for it
is a delightful cus