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Lay the table prettily with the usual doilies, bonbon dishes of almonds,
radishes, candies, and crystallised fruits. Garden asters are now in
full bloom and come in great variety of colour, and these will make a
beautiful centrepiece, massed in a large bowl. The combination of
crimson and pink, of pink and white, or of white and purple is better
than the use of one shade alone. The table should be lighted with Roman
lamps or else with Jerusalem candlesticks, as suggestive of classical
studies; to be sure, September is one of the sunny months, but this
luncheon may be used quite as well at some other time of the year as the
fall, if that is desired, so the suggestion of the lamps may stand.
The most attractive feature of the luncheon may be the cards, which may
well be preserved for years as souvenirs of college as well as of this
meal; they are to be photographs of the particular place in the college
grounds or dormitories or village with which each guest was most
associated. If one has a friend still in college with a kodak (and what
college girl does not own one?), she can take and send them to you. The
girl who was oftenest in the Dean's office for reprimand may have a
picture of that interior; the one who was champion at basket ball, a
view of the gymnasium with the team at play; the girl who was the best
at chemistry, a glimpse of the laboratory; the one who frequented the
soda fountain down town, a picture of that. Or, if these photographs are
too frivolous, pictures of beautiful views about the college grounds may
be substituted.
The luncheon may suggest in its menu the favourite dishes of some of the
class, or one course might be a reminder of something served constantly
on the college table; this meal really gives unlimited opportunity for
ingenuity.
If the weather does not admit of using artificial lights, and yet the
table is felt to be incomplete without the small Roman lamps, they might
be filled with flowers instead of oil and used as decorations, the
central group of asters being kept low in a very shallow bowl.