uld be asked to dinner within a month of the first call
if possible, and the return invitation should be given within the
following month.

When guests are assembled at a country house, they are sent in to
dinner, on the first evening, according to their individual precedence;
but on subsequent evenings the gentlemen frequently draw lots to decide
which lady they shall have the pleasure of taking in to dinner,
otherwise a lady and gentleman would go in to dinner together five or
six consecutive times, according to the length of the visit, but this is
more a practice with people who march with the times, than with what are
termed "old-fashioned people."

When a party is varied by additional dinner-guests each evening, drawing
lots gives way to precedency, it being too familiar a practice to be
adopted at a large dinner-party.

* * * * *

=Saying Grace=, both before and after 'dinner,' is a matter of feeling
rather than of etiquette. It used to be very much the custom to say
"grace," but of late years it is oftener omitted than not, especially at
large dinner-parties in town.

In the country, when a clergyman is present, he should be asked to say
grace. When grace is said by the host, it is said in a low voice, and in
a very few words; the guests inclining their heads the while.

It was no rapid revolutionary change in manners that brought about the
difference that now exists between the Elizabethan and present eras; no
polished mentor came forward to teach that it was not the nicest and
cleanest to do, to put knives into the salt, to dip fingers into
plates, or to spread butter with the thumb; on the contrary, these
things righted themselves little by little, step by step, until the
present code of manners was arrived at. But it is quite possible that a
hundred years hence it will be discovered that the manners of the
present century offered wide scope for improvement.

In the meantime these rules of etiquette observed in society are adhered
to and followed by those who do not wish to appear singular, eccentric,
old-fashioned, unconventional, or any other adjective that the temper of
their judges may induce them to apply to them for committing solecisms,
either small or great.

* * * * *

=Married Ladies, as a rule, dine out with their Husbands=, and do not
accept invitations to large dinners when their husbands are unable to
accompany them. There a