More Etiquette of Calls

A Gilded Age breakfast setting. These settings show a breakfast table set for several courses. – “Invitations to a breakfast require an immediate acknowledgment, and a call within ten days after the entertainment.”

After an invitation to a dinner, a call mast be paid within a week. At breakfast, even in the most orderly household, an amount of freedom is indulged which would be unjustifiable at any other meal. Each may rise and leave the table, after a courteous excuse, whenever business or pleasure dictates, and without waiting for all to rise or for a signal from the hostess. 

At luncheons, walking or carriage costumes are worn and bonnets may be retained; the gloves are removed at the table. Ladies should arrive twenty or thirty minutes before the hour named for luncheon, and it is polite to take leave within fifteen minutes after leaving the dining room. An invitation to a ceremonious luncheon requires as prompt attention as one to a dinner, and whether accepted or not, a call must be made within a week, or upon the first reception day of the hostess. 

Invitations to a breakfast require an immediate acknowledgment, and a call within ten days after the entertainment. After returning to the drawing room, guests depart within half an hour.—Housekeepers’ Weekly, 1893

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