Page:Book of Etiquette, Volume 1, by Lilian Eichler.djvu/317

Rh other hand, if you are unable to care for the wants and comforts of several guests, do not invite them to house parties.

Be hospitable—but above all use good sense and good judgment before you invite.

The fact that America is the home of hospitality and land of the most generous hostesses, does not indicate necessarily that the guest, in his selfishness, should take advantage of it. A well-bred, considerate person always seeks to minimize as far as possible the efforts of his or her hostess, and to make the visit or stay pleasant. She, or he, constantly endeavors to aid the hostess in providing entertainment. In short, he returns the hospitality of the host and hostess, with a hospitality of his own—a hospitality that, in its consideration and regard for the rights of others, is one of the beautiful things that makes life worth the living.

It is superb—this giving and returning of hospitality: We find a worried, anxious business man, forgetting for the moment his pressing affairs in the diverting entertainments provided for him by his hostess; in return, exerting every effort to contribute to the success of the evening, to join in the conversation when he would rather be silent and pensive, to be witty and humorous when he would much prefer being moody and despondent. And so it goes on, a constant giving and returning of hospitality, so beautiful and so inspiring that it is worthy of the stress given to it in the social world.

There are some paramount obligations which the guest must observe. Among them, perhaps most exacting, is punctuality. To keep others waiting, to be continually