Page:Book of Etiquette, Volume 1, by Lilian Eichler.djvu/102

 tendency to be more useful and less ornamental. Which is, of course, as it should be.

And now let us consider some of the more important items to be included.

In selecting her linens the bride should pay particular attention to quality; the amount she buys depends upon the size of the new home, and upon the means at her command. There must be sheets and pillow-cases; bath towels and kitchen towels, napkins and table-covers. If she is fond of handwork, there may be hand-embroidered linens for the bed-spreads, hand-embroidered linen scarfs and hand-embroidered centerpieces of linen. One bride we know included a twenty-yard bolster of uncut linen in her trousseau in addition to the items mentioned above. If one can afford it, it is best to start out with a generous supply of linens, as somehow the older they grow, the longer we have them, the more precious they become.

Linens are usually initialed. When household and personal linens are marked, they bear the initials of the bride's maiden name. Towels for the bath are marked with a single initial in white or colored thread, to match the border. Table-covers, if initialed at all, have the letters placed in the center, half-way between the middle and edge of the table; napkins are initialed in the comer. White linens are invariably initialed in white.

"Girl, do not exult in thy wedding dress; see how much trouble lurks behind it," says an old Syrian proverb. But