My mother and aunt are sailing for Europe on Friday and I have arranged to see their ship is scheduled to sail at one. them off. It was good of you to ask me. For an informal tea My dear Miss Harcourt, Very sincerely yours, Grace Emerson. Will you come to tea with me on Tuesday afternoon, April the fourth, at four o'clock? I have asked a few of our friends. Cordially yours, April first Katherine Gerard Evans. Telephone invitations are not good form and may be used only for the most informal occasions. Invitations to the theatre, concert, and garden party, are mostly informal affairs and are sent as brief letters. A garden party is a sort of out-of-doors at home. To a garden party which is not formal or elaborate My dear Miss Burton, Locust Lawn, June 29, 1922. Will you come to tea with me informally on the lawn on Thursday afternoon, July the fourth, at four o'clock? I know you always enjoy tennis and I have asked a few enthusiasts. Do try to come. Cordially yours, Such an invitation is acknowledged in kind-by an informal note. It may be of interest to read a letter or two from distinguished persons along these lines. Here, for example, is the delightfully informal way in which Thomas Bailey Aldrich invited his friend William H. Rideing to dinner on one occasion:1 Dear Rideing: April 6, 1882. Will you come and take an informal bite with me to-morrow (Friday) at 6 P. M. at my hamlet, No. 131 Charles Street? Mrs. Aldrich and the twins are away from home, and the thing is to be sans ceremonie. Costume prescribed: Sack coat, paper collar, and celluloid sleeve buttons. We shall be quite alone, unless Henry James should drop in, as he promises to do if he gets out of an earlier engagement. Suppose you drop in at my office to-morrow afternoon about 5 o'clock and I act as pilot to Charles Street. Yours very truly, T. B. Aldrich. And one from James Russell Lowell to Henry W. Longfellow:2 Dear Longfellow: Elmwood, May 3, 1876. Will you dine with me on Saturday at six? I have a Baltimore friend coming, and depend on you. I had such a pleasure yesterday that I should like to share it 1From "Many Celebrities and a Few Others-A Bundle of Reminiscences," by William H. Rideing. Copyright, 1912, by Doubleday, Page & Co. 2From "Letters of James Russell Lowell," edited by C. E. Norton. Copyright, 1893, by Harper & Bros. with you to whom I owed it. J. R. Osgood & Co. sent me a copy of your Household Edition to show me what it was, as they propose one of me. I had been reading over with dismay my own poems to weed out the misprints, and was awfully disheartened to find how bad they (the poems) were. Then I took your book to see what the type was, and before I knew it I had been reading two hours and more. I never wondered at your popularity, nor thought it wicked in you; but if I had wondered, I should no longer, for you sang me out of all my worries. To be sure they came back when I opened my own book again— but that was no fault of yours. If not Saturday, will you say Sunday? My friend is a Mrs.- and a very nice person indeed. Yours always, J. R. L. George Meredith (“Robin") accepting an informal dinner invitation from his friend, William Hardman ("Tuck"):1 Dear "at any price" Tuck: Jan'y 28, 1863. I come. Dinner you give me at half-past five, I presume. A note to Foakesden, if earlier. Let us have 5 ms. for a pipe, before we go. You know we are always better tempered when this is the case. I come in full dress. And do the honour to the Duke's motto. I saw my little man off on Monday, after expedition over Bank and Tower. Thence to Pym's, Poultry: oysters consumed by dozings. Thence to Purcell's: great devastation of pastry. Thence to Shoreditch, where Sons calmly said: "Never mind, Papa; it is no use minding it. I shall soon be back to you," and so administered comfort to his forlorn Dad.-My 1From "The Letters of George Meredith." Copyright, 1912, by Charles Scribner's Sons. By permission of the publishers. salute to the Conquered One, and I am your loving, hard-druv, much be-bullied To a theatre Robin. 347 Madison Avenue, December 8, 1919. My dear Miss Evans, Mr. Smith and I are planning a small party of friends to see "The Mikado" on Thursday evening, December the eighteenth, and we hope that you will be among our guests. We have arranged to meet in the lobby of the Garrick Theatre at quarter after eight o'clock. I do hope you have no other engagement. Accepting Very cordially yours, Gertrude Ellison Smith. My dear Mrs. Smith, I shall be delighted to come to your theatre party on Thursday evening, December the eighteenth. I shall be in the lobby of the Garrick Theatre at a quarter past eight o'clock. It is so kind of you to ask me. Sincerely yours, December 12, 1919. Regretting My dear Mrs. Smith, With great regret I must write that I shall be unable to join your theatre party on Thursday evening, December the eight eenth. My two cousins are visiting me and we had planned to go to the Hippodrome. I much appreciate your thinking of me. Very sincerely yours, For an informal affair, if at all in doubt as to what kind of invitation to issue, it is safe to write a brief note in the first person. Two or more sisters may receive one invitation addressed "The Misses Evans." But two bachelor brothers must receive separate invitations. A whole family should never be included in one invitation. It is decidedly not proper to address one envelope to "Mr. and Mrs. Elliott and family." To an informal dance Invitations to smaller and more informal dances may be short notes. Or a visiting card is sometimes sent with a notation written in ink below the hostess's name and toward the left, as shown below: (A) Mrs. John Evans At Home 500 Park Avenue Dancing at half after nine January the eighteenth If the visiting card is used "R.S.V.P." is necessary, because usually invitations on visiting cards do |