In detail:  In the two-course, or hotel, service, the “dessert” plate is of china, or if of glass, it must have a china one under it.  A china dessert plate is just a fairly deep medium sized plate and it is always put on the table with a “dessert” spoon and fork on it.  After the inevitable ice cream has been eaten, a fruit plate with a finger bowl on it, is put on in exchange.  A doily goes under the finger bowl, and a fruit knife and fork on either side.

In the single course, or private house, service, the ice cream plate is of glass and belongs under the finger bowl which it matches.  The glass plate and finger bowl in turn are put on the fruit plate with a doily between, and the dessert spoon and fork go on either side of the finger bowl (instead of the fruit knife and fork).  This arrangement of plates is seen in such houses as the Worldlys’ and the Oldnames’, and in fact in most very well done houses.  The finger bowls and glass plates that match make a prettier service than the finger bowl on a china plate by itself; also it eliminates a change—­but not a removal—­of plates.  In this service, a guest lifts the finger bowl off and eats his ice cream on the glass plate, after which the glass plate is removed and the china one is left for fruit.

Some people think this service confusing because an occasional guest, in lifting off the finger bowl, lifts the glass plate too, and eats his dessert on his china plate.  It is merely necessary for the servants to notice at which place the china plate has been used and to bring a clean one; otherwise a “cover” is left with a glass plate or a bare tablecloth for fruit.  Also any one taking fruit must have a fruit knife and fork brought to him.  Fruit is passed immediately after ice-cream; and chocolates, conserves, or whatever the decorative sweets may be, are passed last.

This single service may sound as though it were more complicated than the two-course service, but actually it is less.  Few people use the wrong plate and usually the ice-cream plates having others under them can be taken away two at a time.  Furthermore, scarcely any one takes fruit, so that the extra knives and forks are few, if any.

Before finishing dessert, it may be as well to add in detail, that the finger bowl doiley is about five or six inches in diameter; it may be round or square, and of the finest and sheerest needlework that can be found (or afforded).  It must always be cream or white.  Colored embroideries look well sometimes on a country lunch table but not at dinner.  No matter where it is used, the finger bowl is less than half filled with cold water; and at dinner parties, a few violets, sweet peas, or occasionally a gardenia, is put in it. (A slice of lemon is never seen outside of a chop-house where eating with the fingers may necessitate the lemon in removing grease.  Pretty thought!)

Black coffee is never served at a fashionable dinner table, but is brought afterwards with cigarettes and liqueurs into the drawing-room for the ladies, and with cigars, cigarettes and liqueurs into the smoking room for the gentlemen.