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HOSTESS AND GUEST.
IN ALL SHADES.
OLD CITY TREES.
TREASURE TROVE.
TRIAL BY ORDEAL.
A NORMAN STRONGHOLD.
SOME SIMILES.
PROCESSIONARY CATERPILLARS.
BY THE RIVER.
No. 127.—Vol. III.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1886.
BY MRS POWER O’DONOGHUE.
I have often thought that a few practical hintsrelative to the preparations for and treatment ofa guest who comes to be a member of the householdfor a while, would not, perhaps, be thrownaway upon the general company of readers. Itherefore venture to offer these hints in homelyfashion, feeling that I am, as it were, treadingupon almost new ground, for the matter is onethat appears to me to have been, considering itsimportance, wonderfully little discussed.
Before entering upon my subject, I wouldwish to say that my observations and adviceare not addressed to those heads of familieswho have large establishments and a numerousstaff of servants at command; such, of course,have merely to signify to the housekeeper orupper housemaid that a guest is expected, andgive directions that such and such a room beprepared: the green, the yellow, blue, or anyother colour, as the case may be. I desire ratherto write for those heads of houses who belongto the middle classes, and for ladies who, for lackof means, can afford to keep but one servant, orat the most two.
It may, perhaps, be said that in the formercase a visitor ought not to be invited at all; butthat is mere nonsense, for there are times andcircumstances when such a mark of civility isundoubtedly due, and when it cannot with proprietybe avoided; nor need there be any reason,in a properly regulated household, why a guestshould not be lodged and entertained quite ascomfortably, if less luxuriously, in an unpretentiousdwelling as within the lordliest halls. Ofcourse, a great deal must depend upon the styleof living to which the visitor is accustomed. Itwould, for instance, be unwise for a hostess withlimited means at her command to undertake theentertaining of a wealthy nabob, who, frombeing born with the proverbial silver spoonin his mouth, knows nothing of difficulties orstruggles with the world, and is in consequencea mere mass of selfish exactitude andcaprice. Nor would it be judicious f