The Ladies' Book of Etiquette, and Manual of Politeness

CHAPTER XI. DINNER COMPANY. ETIQUETTE FOR THE HOSTESS. In issuing invitations for a large dinner party, the usual form is-- Mr. and Mrs. G---- request the favor of Mr. and Mrs. L----'s company to dinner, on Wednesday, March 8th, at ---- o'clock. If your husband is giving a party to gentlemen only, he will have a card printed or written for the occasion, but your duties as hostess, if he wishes you to preside, will still be as arduous as if your own friends were included in the invitation. The directions given in the chapter on "Evening parties" for the arrangement of the parlor and the dressing-rooms, will apply here equally well, but the dining-room (in this case the centre of attraction) requires still more careful attention. Any fault here will mar your own comfort and the pleasure of your guests, and must be carefully avoided. Send out your invitations by a servant, or man hired for the purpose; do not trust them to despatch or penny post. Be careful in selecting the guests for a dinner party. Remember that conversation will be the sole entertainment for several hours, and if your guests are not well chosen, your dinner, no matter how perfect or costly the viands, will prove a failure. The most agreeable dinners are those whose numbers will allow all the guests to join in a common conversation, and where the host has spirit and intelligence to take the lead, and start a new subject when the interest in the old one begins to flag. Dinners where the guests depend entirely upon the person next them for conversation, are apt to be stupid, as it requires marvelous tact to pair off all the couples, so that every one will be entertaining in tete-a-tete conversation.