going into the dining-room for refreshments, the
dining-room service has to be handed over to the first footman and his
assistants or a capable waitress is equally able to meet the situation.
She should have at least two maids with her, as they have to pour all cups
of tea and bouillon and chocolate as well as to take away used cups and
plates and see that the food on the table is replenished.

At a small tea where ladies perform the office of pouring, one man or maid
in the dining-room is plenty, to bring in more hot water or fresh cups, or
whatever the table hostesses have need of.

=FORMAL SERVICE WITHOUT MEN SERVANTS=

Many, and very fastidious, people, who live in big houses and entertain
constantly, have neither men servants nor employ a caterer, ever.
Efficient women take men's places equally well, though two services are
omitted. Women never (in New York at least) announce guests or open the
doors of motors. But there is no difference whatsoever in the details of
the pantry, dining-room, hall or dressing-room, whether the services are
performed by men or women. (No women, of course, are ever on duty in the
gentlemen's dressing-rooms.)

At an evening party, the door is opened by the waitress, assisted by the
parlor-maid who directs the way to the dressing-rooms. The guests, when
they are ready to go in the drawing-room, approach the hostess
unannounced. A guest who may not be known by sight does not wait for her
hostess to recognize her but says at once, "How do you do, Mrs. Eminent,
I'm Mrs. Joseph Blank"; or a young girl says, "I am Constance Style" (not
"Miss Style," unless she is beyond the "twenties"); or a married woman
merely announces herself as "Mrs. Town." She does not add her husband's
name as it is taken for granted that the gentleman following her is Mr.
Town.

CHAPTER XIII

TEAS AND OTHER AFTERNOON PARTIES

=TEAS=

Except at a wedding, the function strictly understood by the word
"reception" went out of fashion, in New York at least, during the reign of
Queen Victoria, and its survivor is a public or semi-public affair
presided over by a committee, and is a serious, rather than a merely
social event.

The very word "reception" brings to mind an aggregation of personages,
very formal, very dressed up, very pompous, and very learned, among whom
the ordinary mortal can not do other than wander helplessly in the
labyrinth of the specialist's jargon. Art critics on a varnishing day