this, clears the table and brings in the salad.  The dessert follows.  Coffee is occasionally served with the meat course, but it is better to bring it on with the dessert.  Cups, etc., should be in readiness on the side table, to be transferred to the table.  There should be an apparent absence of formality at such a meal, though everything should progress in regular order, systematically, quietly, without orders or clash.  Above all things, see that everything likely to be wanted is at hand; nothing looks worse than someone jumping up to get some article that has been forgotten.  If dishes, spoons or forks must be washed during the progress of the meal, have warm water ready in the kitchen, wash them quickly, and wipe them out of cold water; then their heat will not betray your limited resources.

Setting the Table.—­The “best cloth” and napkins are brought out for the dinner party.  The cloth must be laid with mathematical exactness, its center exactly on the center of the table.  The centerpiece, almost invariably of flowers, only occasionally of fruit, is also exactly placed.  This should be low; it is awkward not to be able to see one’s vis-a-vis, and the hostess should be able to command an uninterrupted view of her table, so that if the waitress omits any service she may by a glance direct her to supply it.  The arrangement should be graceful and pretty, and, in summer, garden flowers may be used with propriety.  The flowers give the keynote of the color scheme; dinner cards, bonbons, ices and creams and the decorations of the small cakes usually served with the dessert, conform to it.  Candelabra are less used than at one time, but are by no means “out.”  A handsome silver candelabra may be used as a centerpiece, its base banked in flowers.  On a square or oblong table, candlesticks with shades give a touch of color that relieves the whiteness of napery and glass.

There is a plate—­your handsomest—­at each place; a napkin squarely folded and lying flat; a row of forks at the left, oyster fork outside, then fish fork, dinner and salad fork, four in all, laid in the order in which they will be used.  Knives are at the right of the napkin, always two, a large and a small one.  Fashion has re-introduced the steel-bladed knife for the meat course; it is surprising to notice how much more tender meat is than it used to be when we tried to cut it with the silver knives.  The soup-spoon is laid at the top of the plate.  The salad fork may be brought in with the salad if preferred, spoons with the dessert and coffee.  Grape fruit is eaten with an orange spoon, laid at the right.  No “fancy folding” of napkins is permissible.  The glasses stand at the top of the plate, a little to the right.  Small cut glass or fancy dishes containing the relishes are placed near the corners of the table within the circle of plates if the table is square; if it is round they are so arranged so as to balance each other in the form of a square.  There may be two of nuts