d. After the
evolution required by the figure is finished there is another short
waltz, and the dancers return to their places. The leader then calls out
the next party, and this is repeated until every one in the room has had
a turn. The stags are called out last. Having no partners to dance with,
each has the privilege of taking out two ladies--the first before the
figure is formed, and the second when the change of partners is
signalled by the leader. The leader directs the figures and dances all
the time.

Every second figure is one for the distribution of favors. The same
procedure occurs, and when the leader claps his hands the dancers
separate, waiting for the favors to be distributed. The latest custom is
for the leader and his partner to carry around the favors, to the
couples whose turn comes next. He gives to the ladies, she to the men.
The scramble at the favor table has been abolished. The men present
their favors to the new partners whom they select, and the women do
likewise. It is very embarrassing and not good form to give your favor
to the partner with whom you are dancing the cotillon. Favors must be
sufficient in quantity not only to go once all around, but there should
be some left over, as the advent of the stags gives the ladies a double
chance to bestow favors upon men. The most graceful way of offering a
favor is to present it with a little bow. Try and locate the places
where your friends are sitting. It is certainly rude, if not
tantalizing, to search through a long row of girls dangling a favor. It
is not difficult in the figures to become well acquainted with the local
geography. Matrons are asked frequently to preside at the favor tables,
but recently some of the floral trifles are brought in arranged in a
sedan chair of flowers, at which two powdered lackeys are stationed,
like the linkboys of old. Originality, however, has not been rampant in
cotillons. Favor figures are the most popular. The woman who brings the
greatest number of favors from a cotillon scores an undoubted triumph.
She comes from the ballroom flushed and delighted, carrying with her the
trophies of her victory, which she is pleased to call her "scalps."
Social obligations are often paid off by men in this way.

Of the few cotillon figures danced in New York society, the grand chain
is the most popular and the simplest. The number of couples called by
the leader form themselves in a ring around the room. At his signal
t