A public ball begins promptly at the time
       mentioned in the announcement.

  Invitations.  These are issued from ten to
       twenty days before the ball, and should be
       answered immediately.

       For an impromptu dance, they may be
       issued within a few days of the affair.

       These invitations should be engraved.  As
       a general rule, it is not now customary to put
       on them the letters R. S. V. P.

But when an engraved invitation is posted, two envelopes are used, the inner one bearing the person’s name only and unsealed, and the outer bearing both the name and address and sealed.

If the ball has any peculiar feature, as a masquerade or costume, the invitation should have some words to that effect in the lower left hand corner—­as, Costume of the XVIIth Century, Bal Masque, or Bal Poudre.

  Invitations asked for strangers.  If a
       hostess receives a request from friends for
       invitations for friends of theirs, she can properly
       refuse all such requests, and no friend
       should feel aggrieved at a refusal for what
       she has no right to ask and which the hostess
       is under no obligation to give.  If the
       hostess chooses to grant the request, well and
       good.

       She would naturally do so when the request
       is for a near relative, or the betrothed of the
       one making the request.

       A man should never ask for an invitation
       to a ball for another person, except for his
       fiancee or a near relative.

A woman may ask for an invitation for her fiance, a brother, or a male friend of long standing, or for a visiting friend.  She should take care that she does not ask it for some one known to the hostess and whom the latter does not desire to invite.  No offense should be felt at a refusal save, possibly, in the case of a brother, sister, or fiance.

  Invitations given by A newcomer.  When a
       newcomer in a neighborhood desires to give
       a ball but has no visiting list, it is allowable
       for her to borrow the visiting list of
       some friend.  The friend, however, arranges
       that in each envelope is placed a calling-card
       of her own, so that the invited ones may know
       that she is acting as sponsor for the newcomer.

  Invitations answered. Every invitation
       should be answered as soon as possible, and
       in the third person if the invitation was in the
       third person.  The answer should be sent to
       the party requesting the pleasure, even if
       many names are on the invitation.

When a subscriber to a subscription ball invites a friend who is a non-subscriber, she encloses her card in the envelope, and the invited friend sends the answer to the subscriber sending the invitation.

  Introductions.  When a man is introduced to a
       woman at a ball, he should ask her for a
       dance.