Part 9

Or a special small card may be inclosed with the invitation, on which is engraved a similar phrase.

When the affair is of extraordinary importance, the form of invitation may dignify the purpose by announcing it at the outset.

_To meet

The Bishop of Albany

Mr. and Mrs. William Astor

request the pleasure of

........................................

company at dinner

on...........................evening

at.............................o’clock

401 Armstrong Street_

For dinners to which only a small number of persons are invited and these mutually acquainted, the formal mode of invitation is not required. A simple note is sufficient.

31 Hamilton Place, March 7th, 1919

My Dear Mrs. Robinson:

Will you and Mr. Robinson, if disengaged, give us the pleasure of your company at dinner on Friday the thirteenth, at half-past seven o’clock?

Yours sincerely, Edith MacArthur

This form may be varied according to the taste of the writer and the degree of intimacy with the person to whom the invitation is sent.

When it becomes necessary to invite some one to take the place of a guest who is unable to be present, this late invitation should not be of the formal sort, but should be contained in a note frankly explaining the circumstances. Such invitations, of course, are never made to merely formal acquaintances.

The custom formerly prevailed of writing the initials R.s.v.p., on the dinner invitations, the initials of the French words, répondez, s’il vous plaît (reply if you please). But this usage has lost favor.

An invitation to dinner demands an immediate answer, either accepting or declining. The invitation cannot be accepted conditionally, nor can the decision be delayed. The form of reply should be as simple as the form of the invitation.

_17 North Street

April 30th, 1919

Mr. and Mrs. Sloan Potter

accept with pleasure

Mr. and Mrs. John Morehouse’s

invitation to dinner

Tuesday evening, May the sixth

at half-past seven_