INVITATIONS, ACCEPTANCES AND REGRETS
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Post, Emily
at a Ball
to be held in the Greenwood Clubhouse
on the evening of November the seventh
at ten o'clock.
for the benefit of
The Neighborhood Hospital
Tickets five dollars
Invitations to a private ball, no matter whether the ball is to be given in a private house, or whether the hostess has engaged an entire floor of the biggest hotel in the world, announce merely that Mr. and Mrs. Somebody will be "At Home," and the word "dancing" is added almost as though it were an afterthought in the lower left corner, the words "At Home" being slightly larger than those of the rest of the invitation. When both "At" and "Home" are written with a capital letter, this is the most punctilious and formal invitation that it is possible to send. It is engraved in script usually, on a card of white Bristol board about five and a half inches wide and three and three-quarters of an inch high. Like the wedding invitation it has an embossed crest without color, or nothing.
The precise form is:
Mr. and Mrs. Titherington de Puyster
At Home
On Monday the third of January
at ten o'clock
One East Fiftieth Street
The favour of an answer is requested Dancing
or
Mr. and Mrs. Davis Jefferson
At Home
On Monday the third of January
at ten o'clock
Town and Country Club
Kindly send reply to Three Mt. Vernon Square Dancing
(If preferred, the above invitations may be engraved in block or shaded block type.)
Ball For Débutante Daughter
Very occasionally an invitation is worded
Mr. and Mrs. Davis Jefferson
Miss Alice Jefferson
At Home
if the daughter is a débutante and the ball is for her, but it is not strictly correct to have any names but those of the host and his wife above the words "At Home."
The proper form of invitation when the ball is to be given for a débutante, is as follows:
Mr. and Mrs. de Puyster
request the pleasure of
Miss Rosalie Gray's
company at a dance in honour of their daughter
Miss Alice de Puyster
on Monday evening, the third of January
at ten o'clock
One East Fiftieth Street
R.s.v.p.
or