At the Table

Many women give great thought to dinner parties, and are more distressed by them than pleased, for fear that some slip betraying poor manners might escape them at the table.

The best thing you can do when you are at the dinner table is not to be nervous. If you make a mistake in some matter, rest assured that no one will notice that mistake unless you call people's attention to it by your confusion and agitation.

And if the table brings you together with people you do not know, no blame attaches to you if you draw your neighbor into conversation without prior acquaintance.

Do not sit far from the table and then lean over it.

Do not drink soup from the tip of the spoon, but from its side.

Do not eat with a spoon what you can eat with a fork.

If you talk at the table, let your talk be pleasant and light-hearted, and beware of speaking of death, illness, and calamities, and of everything that embarrasses people at mealtime.

Do not talk with your mouth full of food. And do not rest your elbows on the table.