THAT TARDY GUEST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 93, 15 May 1909, Page 3

THAT TARDY GUEST.

HINTS TO THE HOSTESS. How long should u hostess wait for a guest who is lute at dinner.? If the guest conies in alter the dinner has" begun must his diime:' lie brought to him from Ihe lirsl course? These are questions which man)' hostesses have asked time and again. They all depend upon how formal a I dinner' party it is that is being givei, how well the hontess' knows the delinquent guest, whether dhe late guest .6 habitually late—some of them most certainly are—and alsouf he or she is the guest of honor. I

In the latter case the dinner must he kept waiting.

NEVER KEEP THE HEAL WAITING,

One nobl ( . personage rebuked a late dinner guest by refusing to keep the meal waiting. As a matter of fact, it lie much less embarassing to the guest himself to find the dinner in full swing, instead or an angry host, an indignant hostess, and hungry and sullen company. : If the feast has started the feasters will be warmed by food and drink; the careless guest who has always missed his train or one of the other thousand and one things which happen to lute people will be treated with easy banter instead of black looks aiid silence.

And so, from the guest's point of vkv.v, it is best to begin dinner without waiting longer than a few minutes, But the guest must pay the penalty by losing his share of the meal. He must begin to eat at the course which has just come on,

All this firmness, however, goes for naught if it is the guest of honor who keeps the banquet waiting. In that case the unfortunate hostess must bear her burden in silence and wait, if it is an hour, for the tardy guest, And this is not an unheard-of catastrophe either. LEAVE lll.U OFF THE LIST. But when the evening j b ruined a:id the dinner ii spoiled, the excuse of tile tardy one should h c so excellent and so authentic an to leave no doubt in fie minds of the exhausted waiter* that ue has been the victim of bitter circumstances.

As lor the habitually late dinner guest, his punishment should .be so severe that he should never forget the lesson. And, after ull, what punishment can be greater tliua to leave him off the list altogether r When he unds that his place at some coveted table hu B been tilled by his great, est social rival, ho will take care that m future punctuality shall be with him the lust consideration.

_ Punctuality is really due to habit, and is easi y cultivated by those who put themselves to the trouble. If only men would stop to think a moment they would realise the ineonveuieuee they cause by being late, and so spar c hostesses many unmetics.