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| None but a low-bred clown will ever carry fruit or bon-bons away from the table. |
To use one's own knife, spoon or fingers, instead of the butter knife, sugar-tongs or salt-spoons, is to persuade the company that you have never seen the latter articles before, and are unacquainted with their use.
Never eat all that is on your plate, and above all never be guilty of the gaucherie of scraping your plate, or passing your bread over it as if to clean it.
Never fill your mouth so full that you cannot converse; at the same time avoid the appearance of merely playing with your food.
Eat in small mouthfuls, and rather slowly than rapidly.
Peel fruit with a silver knife in your right hand. Eat it in small slices cut from the whole fruit, but never bite it, or anything else at table. Need I say no fruit should ever be sucked at the table?
If upon opening fruit you find it is not perfect, or there is a worm in it, pass your plate quietly and without remark to the waiter, who will bring you a clean one.
None but a low-bred clown will ever carry fruit or bon-bons away from the table.
Drinking wine with people is an old custom, but it will nowadays be found to exist only among the past or passing generation.
When the hostess thinks her lady friends have taken as much dessert as they wish, she catches the eye of the principal among them; an interchange of ocular telegraphing takes place, the hostess rises, and with her all the company rise; the gentlemen make a passage for the ladies to pass; the one who is nearest to the door opens it, and holds it open until all the ladies have passed out of the room.
As soon as the ladies have retired the gentlemen may resume their seats for more wine and conversation, but it is a very poor compliment to the lady guests to linger long in the dining-room.
The ladies upon leaving the dining-room, retire to the drawing-room, and occupy themselves until the gentlemen again join them.
It is well for the hostess to have a reserve force for this interval, of photographic albums, stereoscopes, annuals, new music, in fact, all the ammunition she can provide to make this often tedious interval pass pleasantly.
If you dine in the French fashion, the gentlemen rise with the ladies, each offering his arm to the lady he escorted to dinner, and all proceed to the drawing-room together.
If the gentlemen remain to have coffee served in the dining-room, tea may be served in the drawing-room to the ladies.
Upon returning to the drawing-room the gentlemen should never cluster round the door, but join the ladies at once, striving to repay the hospitality of the hostess by making themselves as agreeable as possible to the guests.
Never eat all that is on your plate, and above all never be guilty of the gaucherie of scraping your plate, or passing your bread over it as if to clean it.
Never fill your mouth so full that you cannot converse; at the same time avoid the appearance of merely playing with your food.
Eat in small mouthfuls, and rather slowly than rapidly.
Peel fruit with a silver knife in your right hand. Eat it in small slices cut from the whole fruit, but never bite it, or anything else at table. Need I say no fruit should ever be sucked at the table?
If upon opening fruit you find it is not perfect, or there is a worm in it, pass your plate quietly and without remark to the waiter, who will bring you a clean one.
None but a low-bred clown will ever carry fruit or bon-bons away from the table.
Drinking wine with people is an old custom, but it will nowadays be found to exist only among the past or passing generation.
When the hostess thinks her lady friends have taken as much dessert as they wish, she catches the eye of the principal among them; an interchange of ocular telegraphing takes place, the hostess rises, and with her all the company rise; the gentlemen make a passage for the ladies to pass; the one who is nearest to the door opens it, and holds it open until all the ladies have passed out of the room.
As soon as the ladies have retired the gentlemen may resume their seats for more wine and conversation, but it is a very poor compliment to the lady guests to linger long in the dining-room.
The ladies upon leaving the dining-room, retire to the drawing-room, and occupy themselves until the gentlemen again join them.
It is well for the hostess to have a reserve force for this interval, of photographic albums, stereoscopes, annuals, new music, in fact, all the ammunition she can provide to make this often tedious interval pass pleasantly.
If you dine in the French fashion, the gentlemen rise with the ladies, each offering his arm to the lady he escorted to dinner, and all proceed to the drawing-room together.
If the gentlemen remain to have coffee served in the dining-room, tea may be served in the drawing-room to the ladies.
Upon returning to the drawing-room the gentlemen should never cluster round the door, but join the ladies at once, striving to repay the hospitality of the hostess by making themselves as agreeable as possible to the guests.
From two to three hours after dinner is the proper time to leave the house.– From Sarah Annie Frost, 1877
Etiquette Enthusiast, Maura J. Graber, is the Site Editor, for Etiquipedia© Etiquette Encyclopedia
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