inner cards or on "at home" cards, the
note of acceptance should be as brief as is the printed card of
invitation, and to the printed card requesting the pleasure of Mrs.
Blank's company at dinner, the stereotyped answer is invariably Mrs.
Blank has much pleasure in accepting Mrs. Dash's kind invitation for
Saturday the 21st, or Mrs. Blank regrets that a previous engagement will
prevent her from having the pleasure of accepting Mrs. Dash's kind
invitation for Saturday, the 21st.

As regards those invitations that refer to visits of some days'
duration, those accustomed to give this description of entertainment,
know exactly what to say and how to say it. The conventional civilities
or affectionate cordialities, as the case may be, occur in their proper
places; but one point is made clear in either case, namely, the length
of the visit to be paid. There are people who are under the impression
that to specify the exact length of a visit is in a degree inhospitable,
and not sufficiently polite; and they, therefore, as a sort of
compromise, use the ambiguous term "a few days" in lieu of distinctly
defining the limit of these invitations. So far from vague invitations
such as these being an advantage to invited guests, they not seldom
place them at a disadvantage at more points than one. They are uncertain
on what day they are to take their departure. They do not wish by
leaving a day earlier to disarrange any little plans that their hostess
may have contemplated for their amusement; neither do they wish to
prolong their visit a day later, lest by so doing they should break in
upon any engagements that she may have formed on her own account
independently of her visitors. It is also not a little awkward for
guests to tell their hostess that they think of leaving on Thursday by
12.20 train. It might have suited the hostess very much better that her
visitors should have left on the Wednesday, and in her own mind she had
perhaps intended that the visit should end on that day; but, having left
the invitation open, more or less, by saying "a few days," there is
nothing left for her but to sacrifice her own arrangements to the
convenience of her guests, as without discourtesy she could hardly
suggest to them that they should leave a day earlier than the one they
had named, and the visitors remain unconscious of having in any way
trespassed upon the good nature of their hostess.

"A few days" is also an unsatisfactory wording of an