eying it to the mouth. Practice enables one easily
to "make way with" an orange. Bananas are cut in two, the skin
removed; the fruit is held in the fingers, or--preferably--eaten with a
fork. Juicy pears and peaches may be managed in the same way, at
discretion, the rule being that the fingers should touch as little as
possible fruits that are decidedly mushy.

The finger-bowl stands ready to repair all damages of the nature
suggested. The fingers are dipped in the water and gently rinsed, and
then passed lightly over the lips, and both mouth and fingers are wiped
upon the napkin.

At a signal from the hostess, the ladies rise and return to the
drawing-room. The gentlemen follow immediately, or remain a short time
for another glass of wine, when such is the provision of the host.

DINNER-TABLE TALK

The conversation at the dinner-table should be general, unless the
company is large, and the table too long to admit of it. But in any
case, each one is responsible first of all for keeping up a pleasant
chat with his or her partner, and not allowing that one to be neglected
while attention is riveted on some aggressively brilliant talker at the
other end of the table. No matter how uninteresting one's partner may
be, one must be thoughtful and entertaining; and such kind attention
may win the life-long gratitude of a timid _debutante_, or the equally
unsophisticated country cousin.

Dinner-table talk should be affable. The host and hostess must be
alert to turn the conversation from channels that threaten to lead to
antagonisms of opinion; and each guest should feel that it is more
important just now to make other people happy than to gratify his
impulse to "floor" them on the tariff question. In short, at dinner,
as under most social conditions, the watchword ever in mind should be,
"Not to myself alone."

INFORMAL DINNERS

The informal dinner, daily served in thousands of refined American
homes, is a much less pretentious affair than the name "dinner"
technically implies. In most cases the service is but partially _a la
Russe_, most courses, and all the _entrees_, being set on the table,
the serving and "helping" being done by some member of the family; the
presence of a waitress being sometimes dispensed with except at
transition points; as, when the table is cleared before the dessert.
This formality is the most decided dinner feature of the meal, which
throughout its progress has been conducted m