The invitation is a visiting card of the hostess with “to meet Mrs. So-and-So” across the top of it and “Jan. 10, Tea at 4 o’clock” in the lower corner, opposite the address.

At a tea of this description, tea and chocolate may be passed on trays or poured by two ladies, as will be explained below.

Unless the person for whom the tea is given is such a celebrity that the “tea” becomes a “reception,” the hostess does not stand at the door, but merely near it so that anyone coming in may easily find her.  The ordinary afternoon tea given for one reason or another is, in winter, merely and literally, being at home on a specified afternoon with the blinds and curtains drawn, the room lighted as at night, a fire burning and a large tea-table spread in the dining-room or a small one near the hearth.  An afternoon tea in summer is the same, except that artificial light is never used, and the table is most often on a veranda.

="DO COME IN FOR A CUP OF TEA"=

This is Best Society’s favorite form of invitation.  It is used on nearly every occasion whether there is to be music or a distinguished visitor, or whether a hostess has merely an inclination to see her friends.  She writes on her personal visiting card:  “Do come in on Friday for a cup of tea and hear Ellwin play, or Farrish sing, or to meet Senator West, or Lady X.”  Or even more informally:  “I have not seen you for so long.”

Invitations to a tea of this description are never “general.”  A hostess asks either none but close friends, or at most her “dining” list; sometimes this sort of a “tea” is so small that she sits behind her own tea-table—­exactly as she does every afternoon.

But if the tea is of any size, from twenty upwards, the table is set in the dining-room and two intimate friends of the hostess “pour” tea at one end, and chocolate at the other.  The ladies who “pour” are always especially invited beforehand and always wear afternoon dresses, with hats, of course, as distinguished from the street clothes of other guests.  As soon as a hostess decides to give a tea, she selects two friends for this duty who are, in her opinion, decorative in appearance and also who (this is very important) can be counted on for gracious manners to everyone and under all circumstances.

It does not matter if a guest going into the dining-room for a cup of tea or chocolate does not know the deputy hostesses who are “pouring.”  It is perfectly correct for a stranger to say “May I have a cup of tea?”

The one pouring should answer very, responsively, “Certainly!  How do you like it?  Strong or weak?”