Invitations to a private ball, no matter whether the ball is to be given in a private house, or whether the hostess has engaged an entire floor of the biggest hotel in the world, announce merely that Mr. and Mrs. Somebody will be "At Home," and the word "dancing" is added almost as though it were an afterthought in the lower left corner, the words "At Home" being slightly larger than those of the rest of the invitation. When both "At" and "Home" are written with a capital letter, this is the most punctilious and formal invitation that it is possible to send. It is engraved in script usually, on a card of white Bristol board about five and a half inches wide and three and three-quarters of an inch high. Like the wedding invitation it has an embossed crest without color, or nothing. The precise form is: Mr. and Mrs. Titherington de Payster At Home On Monday the third of January at ten o'clock One East Fiftieth Street The favour of an answer is requested Dancing or Mr. and Mrs. Davis Jefferson At Home On Monday the third of January at ten o'clock Town and Country Club Kindly send reply to Three Mt. Vernon Square Dancing (_If preferred, the above invitations may be engraved in block or shaded block type._) =BALL FOR DÉBUTANTE DAUGHTER= Very occasionally an invitation is worded Mr. and Mrs. Davis Jefferson Miss Alice Jefferson At Home if the daughter is a débutante and the ball is for her, but it is not strictly correct to have any names but those of the host and his wife above the words "At Home." The proper form of invitation when the ball is to be given for a débutante, is as follows: Mr. and Mrs. de Puyster request the pleasure of [HW: Miss Rosalie Gray's] company at a dance in honour of their daughter Miss Alice de Puyster on Monday evening, the third of January at ten o'clock One East Fiftieth Street R.s.v.p. or Mr. and Mrs. Titherington de Puyster Miss Alice de Puyster request the pleasure of [HW: Mr. and Mrs. Greatlake's] company on Monday evening the third of January at ten o'clock One East Fiftieth Street Dancing R.s.v.p. The form most often used by fashionable hostesses in New York and Newport is: Mr. and Mrs. Gilding request the pleasure of company at a small dance on Monday the first of January at Ought Ought Fifth Avenue