By Mrs. Humphry ("Madge")

Forms of Invitation - When they should be Sent - Comfort of the Guests - The Right Wines to

Choose - How to Place the Guests

To invite a guest to dinner is, in an ordinary way, the highest social compliment one can pay him or her. It may possibly be exceeded by an invitation to stay a few days in the hostess's country house, or to join her party on a yachting cruise. These are flattering, but there may be circumstances that render them less so than an invitation to dinner. At this form of entertainment the number of guests is necessarily restricted. In even the largest houses the dining-room rarely accommodates more than forty or, at the utmost, fifty persons. The estimation in which one is held by the giver of the dinner may be gauged in inverse ratio to the size of the room. If included in the list of invitations to eight or ten persons, one may feel assured of the liking of one's host or hostess.