If people can afford to give large evening parties, it is less trouble
and more satisfactory to place the supper in the hands of the
confectioner.
For card parties or small companies of thirty or forty persons, to meet
some particular stranger, or for literary reunions, the trouble need not
be great. People would entertain more if the trouble were less.
If one has a regular reception-evening, ices, cake, and chocolate are
quite enough; or for chocolate might be substituted sherry or a bowl of
punch.
For especial occasions for a company of thirty or forty, a table
prettily set with some flowers, fruit, chicken salad, croquettes or
sweet-breads and pease, one or two or more kinds of ice-cream and cakes,
is quite sufficient. Either coffee and tea, Champagne, a bowl of punch
or of eggnog, would be sufficient in the way of beverage.