Etiquette In The Ballroom
New York's invitations are usually for "ten o'clock" but first guests do not appear before ten-thirty and most people arrive at about eleven or after. The hostess, however, must be ready to receive on the stroke of the hour specified in her invitations, and the débutante or any one the ball may be given for, must also be with her.
It is not customary to put the débutante's name on the formal "At Home" invitation, and it is even occasionally omitted on invitations that "request the pleasure of ——" so that the only way acquaintances can know the ball is being given for the daughter is by seeing her standing beside her mother.
request the pleasure of
[Name of guest is written here]
company on Tuesday, the twenty-seventh of December
at ten o'clock
at the Fitz-Cherry
Dancing R.s.v.p.