to be
filled in with the names of host and hostess and guests, date, hour, and
address. The united names of the host and hostess should be written in
the space left for that purpose. Thus, "Mr. and Mrs. A.," and the name
or names of the guests in the next vacant space.

When invitations are issued for small dinner-parties, it is more usual
to write notes than to make use of printed cards.

Acceptances or refusals of dinner invitations should be sent with as
little delay as possible after the invitations have been received. It is
a want of courtesy on the part of a person invited not to do so, as a
hostess is otherwise left in doubt as to whether the person invited
intends dining with her or not, and is consequently unable to fill up
the vacant place with an eligible substitute; thus rendering her
dinner-party an ill-assorted one.

An answer to an invitation cannot be solicited in a subsequent note; it
is therefore incumbent upon the invited person to dispatch an answer
within a day or two at least. Dinner invitations are either sent by post
or by a servant, and the answers are also conveyed in a like manner.

Dinner invitations are invariably sent out by the hostess.

It is not usual in town to invite more than three members of one family;
it is now the custom to ask young ladies with their parents to
dinner-parties.

* * * * *

=Receiving Dinner-Guests.=--The guests should arrive within fifteen
minutes of the hour named on the invitation card.

On no occasion is punctuality more imperative than in the case of dining
out; formerly many allowed themselves great latitude in this respect,
and a long wait for the tardy guests was the result. A host and hostess
frequently waited over half an hour for expected guests. But now
punctuality has become the rule in the highest circles, and dinner is
served within twenty minutes of the arrival of the first guest. In
general, people much given to dining out make a point of arriving in
good time; but there are many in society who presume upon their
position, and are proverbially unpunctual, knowing that in the height of
the season a hostess would wait half an hour rather than sit down to
dinner without them; but this want of consideration soon becomes known
in their different sets, and is always taken into account when "their
company is requested at dinner."

In France, it is not the rule, or the custom, to wait dinner for late
arrivals, and