at a loss to discover why so many women take so much pains, and
spend a considerable sum of money as well, over details which are
unessential, or even noxious," said Mrs. Wilding. "A few flowers
on the table are all very well--one bowl in the centre is enough--
but in many houses the cost of the flowers equals, if it does not
outrun, the cost of all the rest of the entertainment. A few roses
or chrysanthemums are perfect as accessories, but to load a table
with flowers of heavy or pungent scent is an outrage. Lilies of
the valley are lovely in proper surroundings, but on a dinner-table
they are anathema. And then the mass of paper monstrosities which
crowd every corner. Swans, nautilus shells, and even wild boars
are used to hold up the menu. Once my menu was printed on a satin
flag, and during the war the universal khaki invaded the dinner
table. Ices are served in frilled baskets of paper, which have a
tendency to dissolve and amalgamate with the sweet. The only paper
on the table should be the menu, writ plain on a handsome card."

"No one can complain of papery ices here," said the Marchesa.
"Ices may be innocuous, but I don't favour them, and no one seems
to have felt the want of them; at least, to adopt the phrase of the
London shopkeeper, 'I have had no complaints.' And even the ice,
the very emblem of purity, has not escaped the touch of the dinner-
table decorator. Only a few days ago I helped myself with my
fingers to what looked like a lovely peach, and let it flop down
into the lap of a bishop who was sitting next to me. This was the
hostess's pretty taste in ices."

"They are generally made in the shape of camelias this season,"
said Van der Roet. "I knew a man who took one and stuck it in his
buttonhole."