e value or
satisfaction of the hospitality put forth. The bad hostess walks into
her drawing-room when many of her guests are assembled, either for a
dinner-party or afternoon tea, and shakes hands in an awkward, abashed
manner, almost as if she were an unexpected guest instead of the
mistress of the house.

The host is not at his ease; he is provoked at having to make excuses
for his wife, and the guests are equally constrained.

If the host is of a sarcastic turn of mind, he never refrains from
saying something the reverse of amiable to the hostess on her entrance.
"My dear," he will perhaps remark, "you are doubtless not aware that we
have friends dining with us this evening." This remark renders the
guests even more uncomfortable and the hostess less self-possessed, and
this is often the prelude to an inharmonious evening, with a host whose
brow is clouded and a hostess whose manner is abashed.

* * * * *

=The mode of receiving guests= is determined by the nature of the
entertainment. A welcome accorded to some two or three hundred
guests cannot be as personal a one as that offered to some ten to
thirty guests.

Whatever disappointment a hostess may feel she should not allow it to
appear on the surface, and should not be _distrait_ in manner when
shaking hands with her guests. At large or small gatherings
disappointments follow in the course of events, and very few hostesses
can say that they have not experienced this in a larger or smaller
degree at each and all of their entertainments.

* * * * *

=At a ball or evening-party= a hostess should receive her guests at the
head of the staircase, and should remain there until the majority, if
not all, of the guests have arrived.

As the names of the guests are announced the hostess should shake hands
with each, addressing some courteous observation the while, not with a
view of inducing them to linger on the staircase, but rather of inviting
them to enter the ball-room to make way for other guests.

At a ball given at a country house the hostess should stand at the door
of the ball-room and receive her guests. When the guests have duly
arrived, a hostess at a country-house ball or country-house theatricals
should exert herself to see that all her guests are amused. If she sees
that the young ladies are not dancing she should endeavour to find them
partners. In town she is not required to do this.