Life would go on certainly though we were all as rude and uncultivated as could be--sitting on the ground and tearing our food with our hands preparatory to gnawing the bones, and speaking the most terrible home truths to each other without any veil whatever--but it would not be so pleasant. And as civilisation has progressed, so by degrees a sort of code of rules--unwritten in some particulars, but none the less binding--has been evolved very much to the advantage of us all in the way of preventing roughness in manner and making the great machine called Society--which is but another name for an assemblage of human beings--run easily and without friction. More especially perhaps is an acquaintance with the "code" necessary to women for their own happiness, sensitive and keen by nature as they are and painfully aware of the slightest awkwardness; for, akin to the feeling of discomfort--I may almost say general disorganisation--produced by the consciousness of having on a badly-fitting gown, a hideous hat, or a shoe whose beauties are things of the past, just when there is urgent reason for wishing to look well, is the sensation of nervous depression brought on by suddenly awakening to the fact that one does not know quite "how to behave" or "what to do" in the circumstances of the moment. I ought, I think, to begin by offering an apology to the many readers of THE GIRL'S OWN PAPER who have no need of any instruction or hints on the matter for choosing a subject which always provokes a smile--either good-natured or cynical--when mentioned, on account doubtless of its being among those things which everybody is supposed to know. But there is no occasion for the already enlightened to wade through this paper. The heading will warn them off, and they can simply skip it all. Leaving the majority therefore out of the question as in no way concerned, I address myself to the comparatively few; and, on the principle of taking the first step before attempting the second, I begin at the beginning and will try to answer queries which present themselves to my imagination as likely to be asked if people had the opportunity of asking them. We will consider at starting the very ordinary occurrence of a dinner party about to be given; the invitations being sent out. These may be formal cards--"Mr. and Mrs. A. request the honour"--or the pleasure--"of Mr. and Mrs. B's company at dinner on Tuesday, the 8th of June, at 8 o'clock"--or merely notes--"Dear Mrs. A., will you and Mr. A. give us the pleasure of your company at dinner on," etc. In either case the answer must be couched in the same terms as the invitation, except when, as sometimes happens, the inviter is a near relative or very intimate friend of the invited, in which event the formality may be disregarded in favour of a note. "Dear Mrs. B."--or the Christian name only--"we have great pleasure in accepting your kind invitation," or "We shall have great pleasure in dining with you," etc.