re she stands to receive, form as much
decoration as is ever attempted.

Whether in a public ballroom or a private drawing-room, the curtains over
the windows are drawn and the lights lighted as if for a ball in the
evening. If the tea is at a private house there is no awning unless it
rains, but there is a chauffeur or coachman at the curb to open motor
doors, and a butler, or caterer's man, to open the door of the house
before any one has time to ring.

Guests as they arrive are announced either by the hostess' own butler or a
caterer's "announcer." The hostess receives everyone as at a ball; if she
and her daughter are for the moment standing alone, the new arrival, if a
friend, stands talking with them until a newer arrival takes his or her
place.

After "receiving" with her mother or mother-in-law for an hour or so, as
soon as the crowd thins a little, the debutante or bride may be allowed to
dance.

The younger people, as soon as they have shaken hands with the hostess,
dance. The older ones sit about, or talk to friends or take tea.

At a formal tea, the tea-table is exactly like that at a wedding
reception, in that it is a large table set as a buffet, and is always in
charge of the caterer's men, or the hostess' own butler or waitress and
assistants. It is never presided over by deputy hostesses.

=THE MENU IS LIMITED=

Only tea, bouillon, chocolate, bread and cakes are served. There can be
all sorts of sandwiches, hot biscuits, crumpets, muffins, sliced cake and
little cakes in every variety that a cook or caterer can devise--whatever
can come under the head of "bread and cake" is admissible; but nothing
else, or it becomes a "reception," and not a "tea." At the end of the
table or on a separate table near by, there are bowls or pitchers of
orangeade or lemonade or "punch" (meaning in these days something cold
that has fruit juice in it) for the dancers, exactly as at a ball.

Guests go to the table and help themselves to their own selection of bread
and cakes. The chocolate, already poured into cups and with whipped cream
on top, is passed on a tray by a servant. Tea also poured into cups, not
mixed but accompanied by a small pitcher of cream, bowl of sugar, and dish
of lemon, is also passed on a tray. A guest taking her plate of food in
one hand and her tea or chocolate in the other, finds herself a chair
somewhere, if possible, near a table, so that she can take her tea without
discomfort.

=A