fter dinner.

At a dinner of ten or twelve, the five or six ladies are apt to sit in one
group, or possibly two sit by themselves, and three of four together, but
at a very large dinner they inevitably fall into groups of four or five or
so each. In any case, the hostess must see that no one is left to sit
alone. If one of her guests is a stranger to the others, the hostess draws
a chair near one of the groups and offering it to her single guest sits
beside her. After a while when this particular guest has at least joined
the outskirts of the conversation of the group, the hostess leaves her and
joins another group where perhaps she sits beside some one else who has
been somewhat left out. When there is no one who needs any especial
attention, the hostess nevertheless sits for a time with each of the
different groups in order to spend at least a part of the evening with all
of her guests.

=WHEN THE GENTLEMEN RETURN TO THE DRAWING-ROOM=

When the gentlemen return to the drawing-room, if there is a particular
lady that one of them wants to talk to, he naturally goes directly to
where she is, and sits down beside her. If, however, she is securely
wedged in between two other ladies, he must ask her to join him elsewhere.
Supposing Mr. Jones, for instance, wants to talk to Mrs. Bobo Gilding, who
is sitting between Mrs. Stranger and Miss Stiffleigh: Mr. Jones saunters
up to Mrs. Gilding--he must not look too eager or seem too directly to
prefer her to the two who are flanking her position, so he says rather
casually, "Will you come and talk to me?" Whereupon she leaves her
sandwiched position and goes over to another part of the room, and sits
down where there is a vacant seat beside her. Usually, however, the ladies
on the ends, being accessible, are more apt to be joined by the first
gentleman entering than is the one in the center, whom it is impossible to
reach. Etiquette has always decreed that gentlemen should not continue to
talk together after leaving the smoking-room, as it is not courteous to
those of the ladies who are necessarily left without partners.

At informal dinners, and even at many formal ones, bridge tables are set
up in an adjoining room, if not in the drawing-room. Those few who do not
play bridge spend a half hour (or less) in conversation and then go home,
unless there is some special diversion.

=MUSIC OR OTHER ENTERTAINMENT AFTER DINNER=

Very large dinners of fifty or over are almost inv