d Marian is actually Mary Ann!

As soon as the ceremony is over, the godmother hands the baby back to its
nurse, who puts on its cap and coat, and it is then driven with all its
relatives and friends to the house of its parents or grandparents, where a
lunch or an afternoon tea has been arranged.

=HOUSE CHRISTENING=

Unless forbidden by the church to which the baby's parents belong, the
house christening is by far the easier, safer and prettier. Easier,
because the baby does not have to have wraps put on and off and be taken
out and brought in; safer, because it is not apt to catch cold; and
prettier, for a dozen reasons.

The baby in the first place looks much prettier in a dress that has not
been crushed by having a coat put over it and taken off and put on and off
again. In the second place, a baby brought down from the nursery without
any fussing is generally "good," whereas one that has been dressed and
undressed and taken hither and yon is apt to be upset and therefore to
cry. If it cries in church it just has to cry! In a house it can be taken
into another room and be brought back again after it has been made "more
comfortable." It is trying to a young mother who is proud of her baby's
looks, to go to no end of trouble to get exquisite clothes for it, and ask
all her friends in, and then have it look exactly like a tragedy mask
carved in a beet! And you can scarcely expect a self-respecting baby who
is hauled and mauled and taken to a strange place and handed to a strange
person who pours cold water on it--not to protest. And alas! it has only
one means.

The arrangements made for a house christening are something like those
made for a house wedding--only much simpler. The drawing-room or wherever
the ceremony is to be performed is often decorated with pots of pale pink
roses, or daisies, or branches of dogwood or white lilacs. Nothing is
prettier than the blossoms of fruit trees (if they can be persuaded to
keep their petals on) or any other spring flowers. In summer there are all
the garden flowers. In autumn, cosmos and white chrysanthemums, or at any
season, baby's breath and roses.

The "font" is always a bowl--of silver usually--put on a small high table.
A white napkin on the table inevitably suggests a restaurant rather than a
ritual and is therefore unfortunate, and most people of taste prefer to
have the table covered with old church brocade and an arrangement of
flowers either standing behind