ice enough to
ask one to take one's dinner with him, instead of eating it alone? It is
the being among friends that tempts, not the food; the fact at skilful
waiters have been able to serve a dozen varieties of fish, flesh, and
fowl during the time you were at table has added little to any one's
pleasure. On the contrary! Half the time one eats from pure absence of
mind, a number of most injurious mixtures and so prepares an awful to-
morrow and the foundation of many complicated diseases.

I see Smith and Jones daily at the club, where we dine cheerfully
together on soup, a cut of the joint, a dessert, and drink a pint of
claret. But if either Mrs. Smith or Mrs. Jones asks me to dinner, we
have eight courses and half as many wines, and Smith will say quite
gravely to me, "Try this '75 'Perrier Jouet'," as if he were in the habit
of drinking it daily. It makes me smile, for he would as soon think of
ordering a bottle of that wine at the club as he would think of ordering
a flask of nectar.

But to return to our "mutton." As we had none of us eaten too much (and
so become digesting machines), we were cheerful and sprightly. A little
music followed and an author repeated some of his poetry. I noticed that
during the hour before we broke up our hostess contrived to have a little
talk with each of her guests, which she made quite personal, appearing
for the moment as though the rest of the world did not exist for her,
than which there is no more subtle flattery, and which is the act of a
well-bred and appreciative woman. Guests cannot be treated _en masse_
any more than food; to ask a man to your house is not enough. He should
be made to feel, if you wish him to go away with a pleasant remembrance
of the entertainment, that his presence has in some way added to it and
been a personal pleasure to his host.

A good soul that all New York knew a few years ago, whose entertainments
were as though the street had been turned into a _salon_ for the moment,
used to go about among her guests saying, "There have been one hundred
and seventy-five people here this Thursday, ten more than last week,"
with such a satisfied smile, that you felt that she had little left to
wish for, and found yourself wondering just which number you represented
in her mind. When you entered she must have murmured a numeral to
herself as she shook your hand.

There is more than one house in New York where I have grave doubts if the
host and h