The reduction of duty upon French wines has rendered available for the English table many choice and light wines hitherto prohibited. English taste, however, has not yet been cultivated in this direction to such an extent as to render these liqueurs universally palatable. They should be made subsidiary to the more established wines, and should be introduced principally in warm weather. Choose the company carefully. Ill-assorted guests are difficult to please, while persons who assimilate find additional zest in their social enjoyment. The dessert should be well selected and more choice than plentiful. By choice, do not let us be understood to mean extravagant, consisting of fruits not yet in season or having their proper flavour, or of preserved fruits or fancy confectionery. All these are prejudicial to health, and we cannot understand why people who dine out should be tempted to eat indigestible things, or those which will disagree with them; why what ought to be a means of social enjoyment, should be made a matter of form, ostentation, and discomfort. Let the dessert consist of fine specimens of the fruits in season, backed in winter by a few dried fruits and biscuits. There are so many varieties of evening parties that no directions can be given respecting them. As a general rule, we should advise that they should be as simple, unostentatious, and social, as possible. It is the extravagance which has been introduced into these matters, the insane desire of outvying each other felt by individuals, that is the bar to real social enjoyment, and prevents us from being as lively a people as our continental neighbours. Why cannot we meet to converse, have music, dance, or amuse ourselves in any rational way, and be content with light, simple refreshments, and a sincere welcome? Surely such _réunions_ are more enjoyable than crowds, grand suppers, superb toilettes which are scarcely seen in the crush, and suffocating heat or currents of cold air. Such assemblies upset the house of the party-giver for a week at least, weary and worry her, and are criticised most severely by all her “dear friends” who did not enjoy themselves, or receive the attention they expected. In them all is most certainly “vanity and vexation of spirit;” there is no pleasant converse, no comfort, no intellectual enjoyment; weariness, lassitude, headache, and expense, are the concomitants of such parties. May our “practical housewife” have courage to reject them altogether. CHAPTER V. Routine of a Servant’s Duties—Importance of the Mistress’s Example.