| Share page |
|
588 The Book of Indoor and Outdoor Games |
||
|
each guest. Acquainted with the talents and powers of each of her guests to amuse or entertain, the hostess may prepare in advance a charming programme for the evening's diversion. It goes without saying that she would presume upon their cooperation only when entirely assured of their most willing compliance.
At the beginning of each note may be written, "At the request of the Bride." Then follows, perhaps, to one, "Your voice has given us so much pleasure in times past, will you sing just one song for us to-night?" To another, "You have travelled so far and wide, will you tell us of some experience or adventure that especially interested you?" To a third: "Will the lady of the fairy fingers play something for us this evening? A sympathetic, grateful audience is pledged to you." A fourth may be asked to repeat some good story that has been remembered, with flattering appreciation by his hosts, and yet another may be called upon to do some "stunt," or what are called in the argot of the day, "parlour-tricks."
The host and hostess should have some contribution to make first, and the simpler and less ambitious it is, the more will the others feel encouraged to do what they can. Then the guests may be called for alphabetically.
Each should be the recipient of some trifling prize— bestowed as a reward of merit, with much ceremony. All should, of course, be of leather—card-cases, pocket-books, cigarette-cases, wallets for the pocket, court-plaster cases, articles in burnt, stamped, or chiselled leather, or a volume of Cooper's "Leather-Stocking Tales," would make appropriate gifts.
If expense must be closely considered, the lady whose voice had given pleasure might be crowned "the Queen of Song" with paper roses or natural laurel; the |
||