At all balls, there must be two orchestras, so that each time one finishes playing the other begins.  At very dignified private balls, dancers should not stand in the middle of the floor and clap as they do in a dance hall or cabaret if the music ends.  On the other hand, the music should not end.

Having secured the music and engaged the ballroom, reception rooms, dressing-rooms and smoking-room, as well as the main restaurant (after it is closed to the public), the hostess next makes out her list and orders and sends out her invitations.

=INVITATIONS=

The fundamental difference between a ball and a dance is that people of all ages are asked to a ball, while only those of approximately one age are asked to a dance.  Once in a while a ball is given to which the hostess invites every person on her visiting list.  Mr. and Mrs. Titherington de Puyster give one every season, which although a credit to their intentions is seldom a credit to their sense of beauty!

Snobbish as it sounds and is, a brilliant ball is necessarily a collection of brilliantly fashionable people, and the hostess who gathers in all the oddly assorted frumps on the outskirts of society cannot expect to achieve a very distinguished result.

Ball invitations properly include all of the personal friends of the hostess no matter what their age, and all her better-known social acquaintances—­meaning every one she would be likely to invite to a formal dinner.  She does not usually invite a lady with whom she may work on a charitable committee, even though she may know her well, and like her.  The question as to whether an outsider may be invited is not a matter of a hostess’ own inclination so much as a question whether the “outsider” would be agreeable to all the “insiders” who are coming.  If the co-worker is in everything a lady and a fitting ornament to society, the hostess might very possibly ask her.

If the ball to be given is for a debutante, all the debutantes whose mothers are on the “general visiting list” are asked as well as all young dancing men in these same families.  In other words the children of all those whose names are on the general visiting list of a hostess are selected to receive invitations, but the parents on whose standing the daughters and sons are asked, are rarely invited.

When a List is Borrowed

A lady who has a debutante daughter, but who has not given any general parties for years—­or ever, and whose daughter, having been away at boarding-school or abroad, has therefore very few acquaintances of her own, must necessarily in sending out invitations to a ball take the list of young girls and men from a friend or a member of her family.  This of course could only be done by a hostess whose position is unquestioned, but having had no occasion to keep a young people’s list, she has not the least idea who the young people of the moment are, and takes a short-cut as above.  Otherwise she would send invitations to children of ten and spinsters of forty, trusting to their being of suitable age.