The Ideal Guest

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 259, 29 July 1937, Page 6

The Ideal Guest

T HE first requisite of the short-stay guest. I have decided, is a bag about the size of a shoe box. Anything much ' bigger gives most hostesses the jitters, j When a guest has arrived with a stag- i gering amount of luggage, I am told the hostess’s thoughts on the way home from the station or the wharf run something like this: Heavens, what will she think when she sees the children having breakfast in their pyjamas . . . no dance arranged and probably sbe has brought at least two evening frocks ... no doubt a cocktail suit and we never have those sort of parties . . .

what does sbe think we are. million- i aires? j One can sympathise with the hostess, but more often I am the guest. My grouse is. why are hostesses not specific in their invitations? They could say, “You'll need something warm, but nothing dressy.’’ Or “bring your long trousers and an evening frock for a country, barndance.” That would put us guests on the right track at once. But the misery of arriving with only a skirt and an old . cardigan, to find that everyone else has I arranged to go to an expensive dance in , tails and trains, is an experience that ! no guest would willingly repeat, even if I they had to carry a ton weight of ' luggage.