WHEN YOU ENTERTAIN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 18500, 22 February 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

WHEN YOU ENTERTAIN.

THE DUTIES OF THE YOUNG MAID. Even in the one-maid household it is quite, an easy matter to entertain a large number of friends to tea without fuss if a few preliminary instruction are given.

The maid should by now understand all about announcing guests and opening doors and shutting them quietly. Explain to her that _ :r a big party she must keep a constant supply of freshly boiling water. She will have to keep coming into the drawing room at intervals to clear away dirty cups, and bring in a supply of clean ones. At an “at home" people will probably leave in little parties of two or three, but the maid should know that if you ring the bell when tea is over it is probably to show someone out. So she must open the drawing room door and, seeing guests obviously about to depart, go to the front door, it it is on the same level, or wait at the drawing room door If It is upstairs, ready to' show them out. *

Talking of stairs, do impress on your maid to walk up the stairs slowly in front of the guest she is about to announce, for it is so trying to arrive absolutely breathless to greet one’s hostess. Another thing to Impress on your maid is that when you have guests to tea or any other meal for that matter, she must be quite firm with people who wish to see you, telling them that you are engaged and delivering any but the most really urgent messages afterward.

In cases where there is illness in the house it is only fair to give the maid some definite bulletin which she can repeat to kind callers where friends are likely to come and inquire. Otherwise, the girl not knowing exactly what to say, may give a totally wrong impression. «

Should the patient be fit to receive visitors they should be shown into the drawing room and not left in the hall or on the doorstep, while the maid goes to find out if it is a convenient moment for the patient to see them.