If the latter, she deluges it with hot water, and again watching for the guest’s negative or approval, adds cream or lemon or sugar.  Or, preferring chocolate, the guest perhaps goes to the other end of the table and asks for a cup of chocolate.  The table hostess at that end also says “Certainly,” and pours out chocolate.  If she is surrounded with people, she smiles as she hands it out, and that is all.  But if she is unoccupied and her momentary “guest by courtesy” is alone, it is merest good manners on her part to make a few pleasant remarks.  Very likely when asked for chocolate she says:  “How nice of you!  I have been feeling very neglected at my end.  Everyone seems to prefer tea.”  Whereupon the guest ventures that people are afraid of chocolate because it is so fattening or so hot.  After an observation or two about the weather, or the beauty of the china or how good the little cakes look, or the sandwiches taste, the guest finishes her chocolate.

If the table hostess is still unoccupied the guest smiles and slightly nods “Good-by,” but if the other’s attention has been called upon by someone else, she who has finished her chocolate, leaves unnoticed.

If another lady coming into the dining-room is an acquaintance of one of the table hostesses, the new visitor draws up a chair, if there is room, and drinks her tea or chocolate at the table.  But as soon as she has finished, she should give her place up to a newer arrival.  Or perhaps a friend appears, and the two take their tea together over in another part of the room, or at vacant places farther down the table.  The tea-table is not set with places; but at a table where ladies are pouring, and especially at a tea that is informal, a number of chairs are usually ready to be drawn up for those who like to take their tea at the table.

In many cities, strangers who find themselves together in the house of a friend in common, always talk.  In New York smart people always do at dinners or luncheons, but never at a general entertainment.  Their cordiality to a stranger would depend largely upon the informal, or intimate, quality of the tea party; it would depend on who the stranger might be, and who the New Yorker.  Mrs. Worldly would never dream of speaking to anyone—­no matter whom—­if it could be avoided.  Mrs. Kindhart on the other hand, talks to everyone, everywhere and always.  Mrs. Kindhart’s position is as good as Mrs. Worldly’s every bit, but perhaps she can be more relaxed; not being the conspicuous hostess that Mrs. Worldly is, she is not so besieged by position-makers and invitation-seekers.  Perhaps Mrs. Worldly, finding that nearly every one who approaches her wants something, has come instinctively to avoid each new approach.

[Illustration:  “THE AFTERNOON TEA-TABLE IS THE SAME IN ITS SERVICE WHETHER IN THE TINY BANDBOX HOUSE OF THE NEWEST BRIDE, OR IN THE DRAWING-ROOM OF MRS. WORLDLY OF GREAT ESTATES.” [Page 171.]]

=THE EVERY-DAY AFTERNOON TEA TABLE=