age is the age of simplicity: let the dishes be well chosen and skillfully prepared, let them be served with taste and art, let their quantity be sufficient and their kinds appetizing — and that is enough.

As for the question of arranging the seats, it is very important. The rule followed is that the mistress of the house sits at the head of the table with her husband facing her at the other head. The place of honor is at the right of the mistress of the house, to which she invites the foreign guest or the one advanced in years. The seats are arranged in such a way that a lady is flanked by two men and a man by two ladies; it is preferable that each guest sit between two of the other sex, so that the women do not gather off in one corner and the men in another. At formal dinners a small card with the name written on it is placed before each plate, to prevent confusion and muddle.

The servant should serve the food to the ladies first, beginning with the lady on the right of the master of the house, then the

lady on his left, and so on in suc-cession, until the food is served to the mistress of the house after all of them. Then he passes to serving the men, beginning with the guest on the right of the mis-tress of the house, then the guest on her left, and so on in suc-cession, until the food is served to the master of the house after the last of the guests, and then to his children, if he has children sharing the dinner with the guests — for children under ten years of age should not sit at the table; these eat by themselves.

What is common these days, in consideration of the economic sit-uation and to suit circumstances, is for the host to gather his friends at a single party and to choose most of the food from among the cold dishes, all arranged in pleasing geometric shapes. In one corner is placed a small table bearing the plates, knives, and forks, and in the other corner a second table bear-ing the sweets and the fruit... When the mistress of the house calls her guests, the women come forward first and then the men, and the members of the family

undertake to serve the guests by handing each person a plate, a knife, a fork, and a napkin (usually of paper). The guest then moves about with his plate, choosing what pleases him of this dish or that, until he has had enough; then he withdraws to one side with whomever he wishes and eats his food to the last. And the maid goes around collecting the used plates and serving this one or that; or another corner is set aside where the guests put down their plates without noise. What matters very much is that this operation proceed in an atmosphere of ease and without the least commotion; and the mistress of the house must keep her nerves calm, for nothing is more trying than her strained nerves and her constant anxiety and fear that something may happen to disturb the guests' comfort, making her appear flustered, curt in her talk, and false in her glances.

These, madam, are a few obser-vations on your table at dinner parties, which I have taken care to make simple and useful at one and the same time.