The table should have its centerpiece of growing ferns or flowers, and two or four candlesticks with wax candles and pretty shades. No edibles, with the exception of bonbons, salted nuts or crystallized fruits in compotiers, appear upon the table. All the china used in the same course should match wherever possible, but a different set of plates is permissible for each course.

A supply of extra silver should be laid out in convenient fashion on the sideboard, and finger-bowls, dessert plates, after-dinner coffee cups and spoons should be in readiness on the side table. Water in the finger-bowls should be warm, with perhaps a dainty flower or a leaf of rose geranium floating on the surface.

1. Food should always be placed before guests from the right.

2. When a dish is presented from which a guest is to help himself, it should be passed to the left.

3. When a course is finished, the plate should be removed from the left.

4. Plates should be before the guests when they take seats at the table, and when one plate is removed it should be immediately replaced by another.

5. At the right of the plate have oyster fork, soup spoon and knives in the order of use, the one first needed farthest from the plate. On the left lay the forks in the order of use, the one first needed farthest from the plate. Let the bowls of the spoons and the tines of the forks be turned upward and the cutting edges of the knives toward the plate. The napkin, simply folded, is placed at the left of the forks and parallel to them with the open corners nearest the guest. A small thick piece of bread or a dinner roll may be laid on the napkin or inserted in the fold. The guest removes the napkin, leaving the bread at the side of the plate until he wishes to eat it.

6. Set the glass for water above the plate near the end of the knife. Each glass should be filled with cracked ice before the water is poured.

7. Before the dessert is served all the plates, small silver, salt and pepper shakers, and all the glasses that will not be used again, should be removed. Then the table should be "crumbed," using a silver crumb knife and tray or a napkin and plate.

8. Spoons or knives and forks for the sweet course are usually supplied after the table is cleared. Spoons or knives are laid to the right of the plate; forks to the left. If forks only are called for, they are placed at the right.

9. Black coffee in small cups (for which sugar is passed) is the last course, and should precede the finger-bowls unless the coffee is to be served to the ladies in the drawing-room. In that case the finger-bowls should be placed before the ladies leave the table.

10. If the coffee is to be served in the drawing-room the waitress covers a large tray with a white napkin, arranges the filled cups, smoking hot, upon it, and carries it into the room where the guests are assembled. Many hostesses prefer this way of serving.

When there is only one pair of hands to do both cooking and serving, still less formality should be observed. The service plate should be omitted; all the knives and forks to be used should be upon the table, with salts and peppers at the corners of the table, or one for every two persons. Bread-and-butter plates, containing butter-ball, and a small butter knife should be placed at the left of the cover before dinner is announced, and a dinner roll folded into the napkin. Glasses should be filled with ice water and everything needed should be on the side table before the guests are seated. The plates for each course served on the table should be placed in a low pile, not more than three or four at a time, in front of the host or hostess. As each is filled the maid will lift it to her tray, carry and place it before the guest.

Where there is no maid, as is the case in seven-eighths of American homes, the tea-wagon, or "service wagon" may be a most convenient substitute. Upon it, close at the left side of the hostess, may be placed all the extra accessories for the various courses, and it may be used later for carrying soiled dishes into pantry and kitchen.