Читать книгу How to Behave and How to Amuse: A Handy Manual of Etiquette and Parlor Games - George H. Sandison - Страница 18

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This is simply a reception under another name, which is given to signify that the entertainment is not so pretentious as a formal reception. The name “kettle-drum” signifies to a metropolitan resident, a light entertainment, with demi-toilette for both ladies and gentlemen. Sometimes a tiny drum is beaten at intervals in the vicinity of the tea-table, where a lady of the household or a friend presides. Sometimes a young lady, costumed prettily as a vivandiere sits or stands by the tea-urn as its presiding genius; but these picturesque additions to an ordinary afternoon reception are not to be considered in the light of customs, but simply as pretty caprices, calculated to give vivacity to the entertainment, which any lady may adopt. Not a few leaders in society choose the “kettle-drum” because they dislike general gatherings, or are too absorbed to assist in entertaining evening guests. It is simply an “at home” in the daytime, or a social matinée.