LADY OF QUALITY 68 sometimes gets up a dinner-part)^ at a few hours' notice, but the general and time- honoured custom is to give from ten days to a fortnight's notice. The above forms of invitation and reply- are those in general use among the aristo- cracy and the middle classes. English society is very conservative in all such matters. It is good manners to answer a dinner invitation as quickly as possible, and more particularly if the interval between receiving
- it and the date of the dinner be a short one.
The hostess has to make up her table, as the phrase runs, and if anyone refuses after a few days' delay, she is in the predicament of finding herself short of a guest. This threatens to spoil the symmetry of her table, even if it be a round one, as is very- usual. She hesitates to invite anyone else as what is obviously a "last resource," this being a very poor compliment to pay any person The politeness of sending an early answer averts all this discomfort. Another person may then be invited to fill any vacancy without the awkwardness of having to explain the untoward circumstances. COMFORT OF THE GUESTS It is a mistake to invite a larger number than one's dinner-table can accommodate comfortably. Care must be taken also to have the room at the right temperature, and so to place the table as to avoid draughts as much as possible. A dinner guichet is an excellent means of doing so, and in some houses can be easily contrived in the wall. It may be a lift for carrdng up full dishes and taking down empty ones to the kitchen, or it may serve as a shelf for handing them through from, a serving-room on the same floor as the dining-room. This convenient arrange- ment prevents the necessity of opening the door and thus creating a draught. The menu will have been carefully arranged by the hostess, whether the food is cooked at home or supplied by a caterer. Sometimes a medium course is followed, a certain number of the dishes being sent in, the rest prepared in the host's own kitchen. WINES The wine should be the care of the master of the house. The butler, when there is one, is occasionally trusted with this important task, and if he be experienced he will see that the champagne is properly iced, the claret duly warmed, the hock cooled, and the port carefully decanted. In the absence of an experienced butler and of sufficient energy on the part of the host to see to these things, a few hints may be acceptable on the judicious cooling and warming of wines, so very often mismanaged. The temperature of the wine-cellar should be kept at 60° Fahr. Port, claret, and Burgundy should be decanted in the cellar, and in winter taken into the warm dining- room and, with stoppers removed, placed on the chimneypiece for about an hour. This is unnecessary in warm weather, as then the temperature of the dining-room restores the wine to 60° Fahr., if it should have lost any heat during its transit from the cellar. Champagne and Moselle are usually served in their original bottles. These should be embedded in crushed ice up to the neck for half an hour before dinner, every particle of wire having been first removed. This should reduce the temperature to 40°, or even 35, but anything less than the latter is too low. Americans like it, but English taste finds that over-icing spoils the flavour, and is also disagreeable to the teeth. Sometimes when the dining-room is hot, and when a bottle of champagne has been taken out of the ice and not emptied in its round of the table in the servant's hand, the wine in it acquires too high a tempera- ture. This can be avoided by wrapping it in a cloth wrung out of salted water. Round it is folded the usual white napkin in which it is carried round. THE THOUGHTFUL HOSTESS In addition to wine, a supply of mineral waters should be at hand. So many doctors order their patients to avoid wine and drink whisky that the thoughtful hostess will always have it at hand. The hour of dinner on invitations is always given as fifteen minutes earlier than the moment when the meal is intended to begin. The idea of this is to ensure punctual arrival on the part of the guests. The hope is not always realised, but as a rule the politeness of punctuality is observed. The guests assemble in the drawing-room, on entering which each goes first to his host and hostess before greeting any other person. Married couples no longer enter the room arm in arm, as was the fashion of a former age. The lady slightly precedes her husband as their names are announced, and they advance to shake hands with the master and mistress of the house. While the guests are assembling, the host informs each of the men as to whom he is to take down to dinner, and if the two are unacquainted with each other he intro- duces them. Whether pleased or otherwise with the partner allotted to them, they should appear to be so. It is usual for them to exchange a few words together. On dinner being announced, the escort offers his right arm to the lady, her place at the dinner-table being on his" right. PLACING THE GUESTS The place to be occupied by each guest is arranged beforehand, and the servants who wait are instructed as to the various positions, so that as the couples enter the dining-room the chairs are drawn out for them as an indication of where they are intended to sit. The host and hostess devote special care to the arrangement, placing together those who are likely to interest each other, for etiquette requires that due precedence should be given in accordance with social position. " The Etiquette of Dmner Pai-ties^^ will be continued in Part 2 <?/" Every Woman's Encyclopaedia.
