DINING OUT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5160, 5 October 1877, Page 3

DINING OUT.

(From the Saturday Review.) There are many misfortunes in stors for dinner-givers. They must know whom not to invite together. Politics or other causes may have temporarily separated old acquaintances. The dinner will not be made a greater success by the juxtaposition of twenty members of Parliament who no longer speak to one another, or of a boy and a girl, who have, after an engagement of six months, fortunately discovered that in no respect were they suited to one another. Some of the party have perhaps at the very last moment sent an excuse, and the result is a row of four men all sitting next to one another. Of these, two are certain to be in a bad humor. .No man dines out to sit between two men : and he would much prefer to dine at his club, in which case he can order his own dinner, read his book, and get free play for his legs. The ordinary attitude of man towards man is that of suspicion. They meet like dogs in the street ; an encounter may not take place, but they are ready for one. If possible, the arrangement in the ark should be imitated, and each male take in a female to dinner. The pairing must be made with a proper regard to age, and the lamb must not be given to the were-wolf. The were-wolf may like it ; but the lamb's mother will be disconsolate. If she is to enjoy herself, let her be under the delusion that her daughter will be led to the altar the moment dinner is over by tho young man who has Bat next to her. The next best thing to being unmarried is to be a widower. A good widower is as useful as a good bachelor ; indeed better, in so far as he has a life interest in the fortune of his first wife. Let Lord Methuselah therefore take in the youngest girl in the room. Age has its excuses ; and, if he puts his arms round her neck once or twice in the evening, the world will oidy say, " How very like Lord Methuselah !" His income is large ; and if the disparity in years is so as well, it is better that it should be on his side than on hers. All there drawbacks considered, it might well be asked, Who can give a pleasant dinner, and what are to be its constituents ? We suspect that the pleasantest dinners are given at a great cost. There must be, in consequence, many dull ones ; and there are but few people who are free from the ties produced by a seat in the county, by a largo number of relations, or by a great position. One advantage in dinner-giving is that it tends to equality. Three thousand a year may give as pleasant an evening as thirty. Besides which, less is expected from the former, and the pleasure produces a greater effect. The room must be very small that rill not hold eight guests ; the servants of the house are sufficient in number, and the cook need not be worried about entries which she can neither spell nor make. The largest houses and incomes give indisputably tho worst food and the worst wine—a fact which ought to inspire the possessors of moderate fortunes with

courage. In this age of great expenditure, when an exhibition will shortly be made of the last poor mm, it is curious that the art of cooking should be almost extinct. At nearly all the clubs the dinner is indifferent, while in private houses it is usually as bad as it is pretentious. And yet, when all has been said, there is no such pleasaut form of entertainment, and none in which success brings greater gratification to both and host. The habit is an essentially English one; and even if a. dinner is dull, it should be remembered that at any rate it is better than either a pleasant luncheon or delightful breakfast.