race and composure and all the attendant
attributes which are to be found in this type of hostess sit naturally
upon them; but the individuals so gifted represent the few rather than
the many. A far greater section of society has to rely upon experience
to teach them this useful accomplishment, while with others time alone
can aid them in overcoming natural reserve, and want of confidence in
themselves, which stand in the way of their assuming this character with
anything like success. Those ladies who are innately thoughtless and
careless in this respect, neither time nor experience can mould, and
what they are at the commencement of their career, they remain to the
end of the chapter--very indifferent hostesses. There are varieties of
hostesses, according to individual capabilities, and who are known
amongst their friends by these appellations: first ranks the perfect or
"charming hostess," either title suits her equally well; next to her
comes the "good hostess," she is followed by the one who is "not a good
hostess"; and the rear is brought up by the one who is decidedly "a bad
hostess." Amongst the salient points which distinguish the perfect or
charming hostess are perhaps, foremost, a certain facility of putting
each individual guest at ease, conveying that the welcome she accords is
a personal if not an especial one. Simultaneously with these agreeable
impressions is conveyed a sense of the hostess's genial qualities; her
charm of manner, her graciousness and her courteous bearing evincing so
plainly that she is entirely mistress of the situation: these qualities
insensibly react upon the guests, and evoke a corresponding desire to
please on their part.

* * * * *

=The perfect hostess= possesses yet another advantage, viz. a readiness
of speech, a faculty of saying the right thing at the right moment and
to the right person, and of identifying herself, so to speak, with the
susceptibilities of each of her guests.

* * * * *

=The good hostess= is essentially what is known as a considerate
hostess; she makes up for the brighter qualities in which she is lacking
by her extreme consideration for her guests. In the charming hostess
this consideration is eclipsed by her more brilliant powers of pleasing,
it permeates all she does, while in the good hostess it is her strongest
point, and upon which is founded her claim to the name. The lady who
bears t