The highest cultivation of social manners
enables a person to conceal from the
world his real feelings. He can go through
any annoyance as if it were a pleasure; go
to a rival's house as if to a dear friend's;
"Smile and smile, yet murder while he
smiles." A great compliment once paid
me in Newport was the speech of an old
public waiter, who had grown gray in the
service, when to a confrère he exclaimed:
"In this house, my friend, you meet none
but quality."
In planning a dinner the question is not
to whom you owe dinners, but who is
most desirable. The success of the dinner
depends as much upon the company as
the cook. Discordant elements— people
invited alphabetically, or to pay off debts—
are fatal. Of course, I speak of ladies'
dinners. And here, great tact must be
used in bringing together young woman
hood and the dowagers. A dinner wholly
made up of young people is generally
stupid. You require the experienced
woman of the world, who has at her
fingers' ends the history of past, present,
and future. Critical, scandalous, with keen
and ready wit, appreciating the dinner
and wine at their worth. Ladies in beautiful
HYLAND
