AFTER MARRIAGE CARDS

During the first year after marriage cards engraved thus: "Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Bell Joyce," may be used by the couple in paying calls, or
returning wedding civilities. Such cards are also used when jointly
sending presents at any time. For general visiting, after the first
year, husband and wife have separate cards.

THE USE OF THE VISITING-CARD

A too profuse use of visiting-cards indicates crudity. The trend of
fashion is toward restricting the quantity of paste-board, and
employing cards always when they are required, never when they are
superfluous.

CALLING IN PERSON

When one calls in person the name of the caller is given verbally to
the servant who opens the door. The card is not usually sent up,
except by a stranger. But sometimes there is difficulty in making the
servant understand the name or properly distinguish it from some other
similar name. In this case to avoid mistakes the card is sent up.

If the hostess is not at home a card is left by the disappointed caller.

On the occasion of a _first_ call a card is left on the hall table, or
other place provided, _even though the caller has been received by the
hostess_. This serves as a reminder that the acquaintance has been
duly and formally begun.

On the occasion of subsequent calls, when the hostess is at home, no
cards are employed, except, as before stated, to avert servants'
mistakes. Such is the sensible dictum of good authorities, and one in
harmony with the idea that the personal card is the _representative_ of
its owner, not his _accompaniment_.

This idea is more pointedly illustrated in quiet neighborhoods, where
even the wealthy live simply of choice, and, like their neighbors of
moderate means, employ but one domestic, or, it may be, none. In such
households often the guest is met at the door by a member of the
family, possibly the hostess herself. The use of a visiting-card then
is plainly incongruous, not to say absurd. The visitor who is paying a
"first call" under these informal conditions may find opportunity to
drop a card unobtrusively into the basket, if such receptacle be within
reach; but if this cannot be done without conspicuous effort the card
is better ignored, and its place as a remembrancer filled by the genial
impression which the visitor leaves, and of which an appreciative
hostess needs no card reminder. Besides, people "living quietly" visit
so little, comparatively, that it is