ves. There are
often berries with cream, especially in strawberry season, on an estate
that prides itself on those of its own growing, as well as the inevitable
array of fancy sandwiches and cakes.

At teas and musicales and all entertainments where the hostess herself is
obliged to stand at the door, her husband or a daughter (if the hostess is
old enough, and lucky enough to have one) or else a sister or a very close
friend, should look after the guests, to see that any who are strangers
are not helplessly wandering about alone, and that elderly ladies are
given seats if there is to be a performance, or to show any other
courtesies that devolve upon a hostess.

=THE ATMOSPHERE OF HOSPITALITY=

The atmosphere of hospitality is something very intangible, and yet
nothing is more actually felt--or missed. There are certain houses that
seem to radiate warmth like an open wood fire, there are others that
suggest an arrival by wireless at the North Pole, even though a much
brighter actual fire may be burning on the hearth in the drawing-room of
the second than of the first. Some people have the gift of hospitality;
others whose intentions are just as kind and whose houses are perfection
in luxury of appointments, seem to petrify every approach. Such people
appearing at a picnic color the entire scene with the blue light of their
austerity. Such people are usually not masters, but slaves, of etiquette.
Their chief concern is whether this is correct, or whether that is
properly done, or is this person or that such an one as they care to know?
They seem, like _Hermione_ (Don Marquis's heroine), to be anxiously asking
themselves, "Have I failed to-day, or have I not?"

Introspective people who are fearful of others, fearful of themselves, are
never successfully popular hosts or hostesses. If you for instance, are
one of these, if you are _really_ afraid of knowing some one who might
some day prove unpleasant, if you are such a snob that you can't take
people at their face value, then why make the effort to bother with people
at all? Why not shut your front door tight and pull down the blinds and,
sitting before a mirror in your own drawing-room, order tea for two?

[Illustration: "THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A FORMAL DINNER TABLE OF WEALTH,
LUXURY AND TASTE, WHICH INVOLVES NO EFFORT ON THE PART OF THE HOSTESS OF A
GREAT HOUSE BEYOND DECIDING UPON THE DATE AND THE PRINCIPAL GUESTS WHO ARE
TO FORM THE NUCLEUS OF THE PARTY." [Page