n of highest rank present should
follow last with the hostess.

When the second couple are about to leave the drawing-room, the hostess
frequently requests each gentleman in turn to follow with a lady
according to the precedency due to each. Thus, "Mr. A., will you take
Mrs. B.?" This also answers the purpose of an introduction, should the
couple be unacquainted with each other, and the hostess has not found
an opportunity of introducing them to each other on their arrival.

When a case of precedency occurs, in which either the lady or gentleman
must waive their right of precedence, that of the gentleman gives way to
that of the lady. (See Chapter V.)

A gentleman should offer his right arm to a lady on leaving the
drawing-room.

Ladies and gentlemen should not proceed to the dining-room in silence,
but should at once enter into conversation with each other. (See the
work entitled "The Art of Conversing.")

On entering the dining-room the lady whom the host has taken in to
dinner should seat herself at his right hand. On the Continent this
custom is reversed, and it is etiquette for the lady to sit at the left
hand of the gentleman by whom she is taken in to dinner.

The host should remain standing in his place, at the bottom of the
table, until the guests have taken their seats, and should motion the
various couples as they enter the dining-room to the places he wishes
them to occupy at the table. This is the most usual method of placing
the guests at the dinner-table. When the host does not indicate where
they are to sit, they sit near to the host or hostess according to
precedency.

The host and hostess should arrange beforehand the places they wish
their guests to occupy at the dinner-table.

If a host did not indicate to the guests the various places he wished
them to occupy, the result would probably be that husbands and wives
would be seated side by side, or uncongenial people would sit together.

The custom of putting a card with the name of the guest on the table in
the place allotted to each individual guest is frequently followed at
large dinner-parties, and in some instances the name of each guest is
printed on a menu and placed in front of each cover.

The host and the lady taken in to dinner by him should sit at the bottom
of the table. He should sit in the centre at the bottom of the table and
place the lady whom he has taken down at his right hand. The same rule
applies to the hostess. She sh