hostess, they must pass on into the ballroom. It is
not etiquette to linger beside the hostess for more than a moment,
especially if later arrivals are being announced. A stranger ought never
go to a ball alone, as the hostess is powerless to "look after" any
especial guests; her duty being to stand in one precise place and receive.
A stranger who is a particular friend of the hostess would be looked after
by the host; but a stranger who is invited through another guest should be
looked after by that other.

A gentleman who has received an invitation through a friend is usually
accompanied by the friend who presents him. Otherwise when the butler
announces him to the hostess, he bows, and says "Mrs. Norman asked you if
I might come." And the hostess shakes hands and says "How do you do, I am
very glad to see you." If other young men or any young girls are standing
near, the hostess very likely introduces him. Otherwise, if he knows no
one, he waits among the stags until his own particular sponsor appears.

After supper, when she is no longer receiving, the hostess is free to talk
with her friends and give her attention to the roomful of young people who
are actually in her charge.

When her guests leave she does not go back to where she received, but
stands wherever she happens to be, shakes hands and says "Good night."
There is one occasion when it is better not to bid one's hostess good
night, and that is, if one finds her party dull and leaves again
immediately; in this one case it is more polite to slip away so as to
attract the least attention possible, but late in the evening it is
inexcusably ill mannered not to find her and say "Good night" and "Thank
you."

The duty of seeing that guests are looked after, that shy youths are
presented to partners, that shyer girls are not left on the far
wall-flower outposts, that the dowagers are taken in to supper, and that
the elderly gentlemen are provided with good cigars in the smoking-room,
falls to the host and his son or son-in-law, or any other near male member
of the family.

=MASQUERADE VOUCHERS=

Vouchers or tickets of admission like those sent with invitations to
assembly or public balls should be enclosed in invitations to a
masquerade; it would be too easy otherwise for dishonest or other
undesirable persons to gain admittance. If vouchers are not sent with the
invitations, or better yet, mailed afterwards to all those who have
accepted, it is necessar