Invitations to Dinner should be acknowledged at your earliest convenience, and—whether accepted or declined—in courteously ceremonious phraseology. In the instance of invitations[12] to Balls and Evening-Parties, Weddings, etc., haste is not so essential; but a seasonable reply to such civilities should by no means be neglected.
When you wish to take a friend—who is a stranger to the hostess—with you to an evening entertainment, and are upon sufficiently established terms with her to make it quite proper to do so, acknowledge your invitation at once, and request permission to take your friend—thus affording an opportunity, if it is requisite, for the return of an invitation enclosed to you for your proposed companion. Some form like the following will answer the purpose:
Mr. Thomas Brown has the honor to accept
Mrs. Mason's very polite invitation for next Thursday evening.
With Mrs. Mason's permission, Mr. Brown will be accompanied by his friend, Mr. Crawford, of Cincinnati, who is at present temporarily in New York.
Carlton House,
Monday morning, December 28th.
Among intimate friends, it is sometimes most courteous, when declining an invitation, in place of a mere formal "regret" to indite a less ceremonious note, briefly explanatory, or apologetic. Essential good-breeding is the best guide in these occasional deviations from
ceremonious rules.
Formal notes of invitation, and the like, should not be addressed to several persons inclusively. Of course, a gentleman and his wife are invited in this inclusive way, as are the unmarried sisters of a family, when residing in the same house; but visitors to one's friends, a married lady and her daughters, as well as the younger gentlemen of a family, should, severally, have separate notes, directed to them individually, where ceremony is requisite, though all may, for convenience, be enclosed in the same envelope, with a general direction to the elder lady of the house.