"Or your mother's ordinary visiting-card will do, if she writes in one corner, 'Music at nine o'clock.' Invitations should be sent at least a week or ten days beforehand. If it is possible for you to have a grand-piano, never use a square or an upright one. If you must use either of the latter kinds, turn it away from the wall, and drape the back of the upright with some pretty soft drapery, which can be held in place by books, vases, and a lamp on the top of the piano. All the portières or other curtains that can be taken down should be removed, and all the rugs and heavy furniture carried out of the room. Music sounds so much better in a place free from soft thick hangings. "It is good to have programmes, for people enjoy listening to pieces much more if they know their names. Should expense deter you from having them printed, they may be nicely written off on a sheet of note-paper. For printed programmes, a card ten inches by three and a half, folded once in the middle of its length, makes an extremely good form. "Would you like me to give you some idea of the programme, musically and spiritually considered, as well as from its purely material stand-point?" said Mrs. Martin, after a few moments' silence, "for I believe, with that exception, that I have told you all I can. Get out your note-book, Bertram, and put down what I tell you." PROGRAMME. 1. Mixed Quartet { 'Farewell to the Forest' _Mendelssohn_ { 'O, Hush Thee, my Baby' _Sullivan_ 2. Piano Solo, 'Spring' _Grieg_ 3. Female Chorus, { Lullaby _Brahms_ { 'My Flaxen-haired Lassie' _Koschat_ 4. Tenor Solo, 'Máppari,' from 'Martha' _Flotow_ (Or song by Chadwick, 'Du bist wie eine Blume.') 5. Male Quartet, { 'Verlassen bin ich' ---- { 'The Owl and the Pussy-cat' _Ingraham_ 6. Violin Solo, 'Simple Aven' _Thorne_ 7. Piano, four hands, Ballet Music from Feramors _Rubinstein_ PROGRAMME NO. 2. 1. Piano, four hands, 'Hochzeitsmusik' _Jensen_ 2. Female Chorus, 'Rest Thee on this Mossy Pillow' _Smart_ 3. Violoncello Solo, 'Love Scene' _Victor Herbert_ 4. Soprano Song, 'Parting' _Rogers_ 5. Violin Solo, 'Romance' _Mrs. Beach_ 6. Male Quartet, 'It was not So to Be' _Nessler-Vognih_ "And then," said Mrs. Martin, "you could finish with the Kinder Symphony as a merry ending, or add one or two numbers to those I have suggested, and keep the Kinder Symphony for a separate evening's entertainment. At all events, I hope you will find that I have inspired and helped you a little, and that you will carry out the plans I have laid down."