ed
and laid on a platter garnished with finely chopped meat jelly and water
cress or parsley.

=THE "STAG" OR "BACHELOR" DINNER=

A man's dinner is sometimes called a "stag" or a "bachelor" dinner; and as
its name implies, is a dinner given by a man and for men only. A man's
dinner is usually given to celebrate an occasion of welcome or farewell.
The best-known bachelor dinner is the one given by the groom just before
his wedding. Other dinners are more apt to be given by one man (or a group
of men) in honor of a noted citizen who has returned from a long absence,
or who is about to embark on an expedition or a foreign mission. Or a
young man may give a dinner in honor of a friend's twenty-first birthday;
or an older man may give a dinner merely because he has a quantity of game
which he has shot and wants to share with his especial friends.

Nearly always a man's dinner is given at the host's club or his bachelor
quarters or in a private room in a hotel. But if a man chooses to give a
stag dinner in his own house, his wife (or his mother) should not appear.
For a wife to come downstairs and receive the guests for him, can not be
too strongly condemned as out of place. Such a maneuver on her part,
instead of impressing his guests with her own grace and beauty, is far
more likely to make them think what a "poor worm" her husband must be, to
allow himself to be hen-pecked. And for a mother to appear at a son's
dinner is, if anything, worse. An essential piece of advice to every woman
is: No matter how much you may want to say "How do you do" to your
husband's or your son's friends--_don't!_

CHAPTER XV

DINNER GIVING WITH LIMITED EQUIPMENT

=THE SERVICE PROBLEM=

People who live all the year in the country are not troubled with formal
dinner giving, because (excepting on great estates) formality and the
country do not go together.

For the one or two formal dinners which the average city dweller feels
obliged to give every season, nothing is easier than to hire
professionals; it is also economical, since nothing is wasted in
experiment. A cook equal to the Gildings' chef can be had to come in and
cook your dinner at about the price of two charwomen; skilled butlers or
waitresses are to be had in all cities of any size at comparatively
reasonable fees.

The real problem is in giving the innumerable casual and informal dinners
for which professionals are not only expensive, but inappropriate. The
probl