The younger people rarely ever go to see each other without first telephoning.  Or since even young people seldom meet except for bridge, most likely it is Millicent Gilding who telephones the Struthers youth to ask if he can’t possibly get uptown before five o’clock to make a fourth with Mary and Jim and herself.

=HOW A FIRST VISIT IS MADE=

In very large cities, neighbors seldom call on each other.  But if strangers move into a neighborhood in a small town or in the country, or at a watering-place, it is not only unfriendly but uncivil for their neighbors not to call on them.  The older residents always call on the newer.  And the person of greatest social prominence should make the first visit, or at least invite the younger or less prominent one to call on her; which the younger should promptly do.

Or two ladies of equal age or position may either one say, “I wish you would come to see me.”  To which the other replies “I will with pleasure.”  More usually the first one offers “I should like to come to see you, if I may.”  And the other, of course, answers “I shall be delighted if you will.”

The first one, having suggested going to see the second, is bound in politeness to do so, otherwise she implies that the acquaintance on second thought seems distasteful to her.

Everyone invited to a wedding should call upon the bride on her return from the honeymoon.  And when a man marries a girl from a distant place, courtesy absolutely demands that his friends and neighbors call on her as soon as she arrives in her new home.

=ON OPENING THE DOOR TO A VISITOR=

On the hall table in every house, there should be a small silver, or other card tray, a pad and a pencil.  The nicest kind of pad is one that when folded, makes its own envelope, so that a message when written need not be left open.  There are all varieties and sizes at all stationers.

When the door-bell rings, the servant on duty, who can easily see the chauffeur or lady approaching, should have the card tray ready to present, on the palm of the left hand.  A servant at the door must never take the cards in his or her fingers.

=CORRECT NUMBER OF CARDS TO LEAVE=

When the visitor herself rings the door-bell and the message is “not at home,” the butler or maid proffers the card tray on which the visitor lays a card of her own and her daughter’s for each lady in the house and a card of her husband’s and son’s for each lady and gentleman.  But three is the greatest number ever left of any one card.  In calling on Mrs. Town, who has three grown daughters and her mother living in the house, and a Mrs. Stranger staying with her whom the visitor was invited to a luncheon to meet, a card on each would need a packet of six.  Instead, the visitor should leave three—­one for Mrs. Town, one for all the other ladies of the house, and one for Mrs. Stranger.  In asking to be received, her query at the door should be “Are any of the ladies at home?” Or in merely leaving her cards she should say “For all of the ladies.”