While these preparations have been going on in the dining-room, the
guests have been assembling in the drawing-room. It is proper to
arrive from five to fifteen minutes before the hour mentioned in the
invitation, allowing time to pay respects to the host and hostess,
without haste of manner, before the dinner is announced.
A gentleman wears a dress suit at dinner. A lady wears a handsome
gown, "dinner dress" being "full dress;" differing, however, from the
evening party or reception gown in the kind of fabrics used. The most
filmy gauzes are suitable for a ball costume; while dinner dress--for
any but very young ladies--is usually of more substantial
materials--rich silk or velvet softened in effect with choice lace, or
made brilliant with jet trimmings.
When the dinner party is strictly formal, and the company evenly
matched in pairs, the following order is observed:
Each gentleman finds in the hall, as he enters, a card bearing his name
and the name of the lady whom he is to take out; also, a small
_boutonniere_, which he pins on his coat. If the lady is a stranger,
he asks to be presented to her, and establishes an easy conversation
before moving toward the dining-room.