For a White House cocktail party, jewelry with diamonds and multicolored stones may be worn. Still more appropriate, with the simple cocktail dress, is a parure. An especially effective set is a pearl necklace with a diamond clasp on each side, and matching earclips, bracelet, and ring. _The President’s Dinner_ For a formal dinner at the White House, marked by the presence of the President, diamond jewelry is the only kind to wear. The guest’s prominence and influence may be emphasized to the fullest degree in the elaborateness of the jewelry chosen. And this is one of the rare occasions when a woman need not be worried lest she outshine the boss’s wife. The President, after all, is the servant of the people. The glamour and the resplendent brilliance of such a dinner must come mainly from the guests. The President and the First Lady will affect a more modest attitude, so as to give the guests full opportunity for display. She is an unusual woman who will not take that opportunity! The most elaborate of all White House occasions is the Inauguration Dinner. For this, and for various international balls, to which the heads of the nations’ embassies are invited, there is an established set of rules of protocol. One must have these in mind, as well as one’s own position, before determining what sort of jewels to wear. _The Captain’s Dinner_ On an ocean voyage, one encounters a ruler as absolute as any throned monarch. The captain is usually most genial, but he is the man upon whose shoulders rests total responsibility for the vessel, the passengers, and the crew. He is an accessible ruler, however, and invites many in his shipbound world to dine with him. Cocktails in the Captain’s private suite may precede the dinner. There will be no time for a change of clothes between, so one must go to the cocktail party prepared for dinner. And it will be a feast for the eyes as well, with many parts of the world represented. Each woman will be adorned in accordance with the customs of her land. And each must keep in mind that she is, in some measure, an ambassador. Most persons abroad have no way of judging America save through prejudiced newspaper stories and flashy Hollywood films. Among the films Hollywood sends abroad are the grim gangster melodramas and teenage delinquency films and the gaudy sentimental dream-stories with happy, wealthy endings. Our paintings and our literature give a truer picture of real Americans and for the direct, most meaningful impressions on the largest number of people, there are only our soldiers and our tourists. In spite of spread stories of military misbehavior (good news is no news) and cartoons of uncouth tourists, Americans abroad are in the main as good-natured and as decent as they are at home. The Captain’s dinner is a good place to make the pleasing first impression.