A Novelty in Dinners.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 860, 24 August 1888, Page 4

A Novelty in Dinners.

Leap year dinner parties (says Figaro) are now becoming very popular, and a considerable number was given on what may be called Leap year day itself, the 29th ult. At these parties it is indispensable that the ladies take the initiative in the drawing-room before dinner, and themselves select the gentlemen whom they wish to take into dinner. So, too, at the dinner-table all the carving and helping is done by the ladies present, the gentleman being required to simply sit still and be waited on. Nor is this all, for when the meal is at end it is the master of the house who catches the eyes of his male guests and rises with a view of retiring with them to the drawing-room. In other words, it is the ladies who are left at the table over their wine. When at last they rejoin the gentleman in the drawing-room I leave my readers to imagine what follows, merely sug. gesting that ladies who have indulged in an extra glass or so of wine would doubtless be all the more ready to avail themselves of the privilege of the season, and exercise their Leap-year prerogative to its utmost extent.