Chapter 12

TWO VALENTINE TEAS.

Here's to a cup of tea. It holds intoxication great for me. I find it makes me want to dare Do bold things right then and there; To steal a kiss from Phyllis fair, as she pours tea.

Pink is the color scheme; the invitations are written on rose-tinted cardboard, cut heart-shape and adorned with floral love-knots. The hostess can wear a pink gown and the rosy-hue effect is also carried out in the dining-room decorations. On a blank space of the wall have two hearts formed of pink carnations and smilax, and pierced by a gilded arrow. Beneath, on a pink cardboard, lettered in gold, have this verse:

"Love always looks for love again; If ever single it is twain, And till it finds its counterpart It bears about an aching heart."

The long table, covered with snowy cloth, has the valentine idea in heart design used as much as possible in the decorations. The candles are pink and the paper shades in the shape of roses; pink bonbons bearing appropriate mottoes and tiny cakes covered with pink frosting, are in heart-shaped dishes; around the dishes are garlands of green, caught in a bow-knot with a narrow pink satin ribbon. In the center of the table is a large heart-shaped cake, fringed with smilax and pink roses, and on the top, pink figures numbered from one to sixteen. Before the cake is cut, a silver tray holding corresponding numbers is passed, with the explanation that one of the pieces contains a tiny gold heart, and that the finder will surely succumb to Cupid's darts before another year. In another piece is a dime which will bring the lucky possessor success, wealth and happiness.

The place-cards consist of heart shaped booklets with the name of the guest in gold, and an artistic sketch of Cupid equipped with bow and arrow. On the leaves are the following conundrums:

What kind of a ship has two mates and no captain? (Courtship.)

What is the difference between a mouse and a young woman? (One wishes to harm the cheese, the other to charm the he's.)

The souvenirs are square cards, on which are quaint pen sketches, and rhymes, each peculiarly adapted to the one that receives it, and, of course, more or less personal.

The ices are heart-shaped and the two maids who act as waitresses represent the Queen of Hearts, attired in dresses bedecked with hearts, and small crowns of hearts upon their heads.

Have a heart hung from the chandelier, the guests in turn being placed about eight feet from it, then request them to hold the left hand over one eye, raise the right arm even with the heart, and keeping it in that position, walk rapidly straight ahead and hit it with a finger, striking horizontally. It is declared easy to do until tried.

A VALENTINE TEA. 2.

Here are some contests for a valentine tea. Call on each one for an impromptu valentine. Award a book of rhymes for the best. Turn down the lights and require each man to propose to his partner. Prepare red cardboard hearts and write fortunes on them with baking powder and water. Ask each guest to select a heart and hold it to the fire when the writing will appear. Provide a fish pond with comic valentines. Provide a long table, sheets of fancy paper, flowers, pictures, paste, scissors and watercolors and ask each to make an original valentine. The game of hearts, the auction of hearts and the auction of valentines are old but excellent ways of amusing a company. For the auction of hearts the girls are in a separate room and a clever auctioneer calls off their charms and merits and knocks them down to the highest bidder, who does not know who he has bought until all are sold. A fancy dress party, each girl representing a valentine, is a delightful entertainment for the evening. A small boy may be used for Cupid and blindfolded. He takes a man from one side of the room and presents him to a girl on the other side of the room.