You may be at home in the afternoon, but you’ve probably never been “at-home.”
Unless you happen to be a Victorian or Edwardian matron, in which case, I need to buy you a cup of tea right now!
The “at-home” was the fullest expression of society matrons showing off for each other. Ladies would be at-home to visitors on a weekday afternoon, offering their peers, or would-be peers, with a few light treats, not to be mistaken for a tea, and exchange twenty minutes or so of light conversation.
It’s as ritualized as it sounds.
Each matron would carefully choose her time, to prevent or instigate conflicts with other matrons, and callers would time their visits for maximum social value. Some might not even visit at all, but leave a card. Cards, and the folding and leaving thereof, are an entire ecosystem of their own, requiring a separate post, and a fair amount of headache medication!
Holding an at-home was the society matron’s high-wire act.
She was putting herself out there on the line for everyone to judge her home, her clothes, her hospitality, and her social standing. It’s not a rookie event. To be able to carry it off, she needed a suitable home, suitably decorated, know which refreshments to offer and how much of them, and how to present herself appropriately.
This is the big leagues. A single mistake or one unsuitable item, could raise a question about one’s status, or destroy it entirely.
All of this is in the room when the new Duchess of Leith, a lady you may know as Ella Shane, holds her first at-home a third of the way through A FATAL WALTZ. With the help of her mother-in-law, dresser, and staff, she’s ready.
But she also has an entirely unaccustomed case of what we would recognize as impostor syndrome.
A bit later in the story, one of her visitors from the at-home, Knickerbocker matron Aunt Cecily, gives her the cure: Act as if the chair is there.
You see, says Aunt Cecily, Queen Victoria and Empress Eugenie were at the opera, and it was time to sit. Eugenie looked for the chair. Victoria, born royal, knew it would be there…or else.
So, if you can always act as if the chair is there, no one will ever suspect otherwise.
It’s good advice at-home…and outside, as well!

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