ght, without
shades, the salts and peppers and the necessary spoons and forks. The
knives are "ivory" handled.

=SETTING THE TABLE=

Everything on the table must be geometrically spaced; the centerpiece in
the actual center, the "places" at equal distances, and all utensils
balanced; beyond this one rule you may set your table as you choose.

If the tablecloth is of white damask, which for dinner is always good
style, a "felt" must be put under it. (To say that it must be smooth and
white, in other words perfectly laundered, is as beside the mark as to say
that faces and hands should be clean!) If the tablecloth has lace
insertions, it must on no account be put over satin or over a color. In a
very "important" dining-room and on a very large table, a cloth of plain
and finest quality damask with no trimming other than a monogram (or
crest) embroidered on either side, is in better taste than one of linen
with elaborations of lace and embroidery. Damask is the old-fashioned but
essentially conservative (and safely best style) tablecloth, especially,
suitable in a high-ceilinged room that is either English, French, or of no
special period, in decoration. Lace tablecloths are better suited to an
Italian room--especially if the table is a refectory one. Handkerchief
linen tablecloths embroidered and lace-inserted are also, strangely
enough, suited to all quaint, low-ceilinged, old-fashioned but beautifully
appointed rooms; the reason being that the lace cloth is put over a bare
table. The lace cloth must also go over a refectory table without felt or
other lining.

Very high-studded rooms (unless Italian) on the other hand, seem to need
the thickness of damask. To be sure, one does see in certain houses--at
the Gildings' for instance--an elaborate lace and embroidery tablecloth
put on top of a plain one which in turn goes over a felt, but this
combination is always somewhat overpowering, whereas lace over a bare
table is light and fragile.

Another thing--very ornate, large, and arabesqued designs, no matter how
marvellous as examples of workmanship, inevitably produce a vulgar effect.

All needlework, whether to be used on the table or on a bed, must, in a
beautifully finished house, be fine rather than striking. Coarse linen,
coarse embroideries, all sorts of Russian drawn-work, Italian needlework
or mosaic (but avoiding big scrolled patterns), are in perfect
keeping--and therefore in good taste--in a cottage, a bu