A HOSTESS MAY USE her visiting-card for invitations to breakfast, simply writing on it below her name:

Breakfast at eleven o’clock
April the fourth

A more formal affair may have an engraved invitation on paper similar to that used in the case of dinners. This would have the following form:

Mrs. George Vinton Thorne
requests the pleasure of
................................
company at breakfast
on....................................
at.............................o’clock
Eleven Green Street

Or the hostess may, if she prefers, write a brief note of invitation in the first person. Whatever form is employed, the invitations should be sent out a full week, or a little more, before the date set for the breakfast.

The answer to such an invitation should be sent promptly, whether in acceptance or in refusal. The form is identical with that for dinner-invitations, except that the word breakfast is substituted for the word dinner.

Where the invitation is a note written in the first person, the answer must follow the same style.

A breakfast of the more informal sort, with no more than eight or ten guests, may begin as early as ten o’clock, but a later hour is preferred for very ceremonious affairs, with noon most esteemed as the hour.

Grapefruit is usually served, with finger-bowl accompaniment, and the meal that follows may be as simple or as elaborate as the taste and resources of the hostess dictate.

Usually both sexes are included among the guests at a breakfast. The women remove their gloves after taking their places at table, but not their hats. Veils may be removed entirely or pushed up out of the way, according to the wearer’s choice.

The guest should remain at least a half-hour after the conclusion of the meal, but not longer than an hour unless justified by exceptional circumstances.

Frock or cutaway coats are worn by the men, and afternoon dress by the women. The costumes for a ten o’clock breakfast should be somewhat plainer than for one at the more formal hour of noon.