Soup’s Off

A. R. Gurney, Jr.’s reminiscences of gracious dinner parties of the twenties and thirties were informative and witty (September/October). But Mr. Gurney was not well served by your caption writer, who did not realize that the maid in the accompanying 1929 illustration on page 69 is not serving soup, as your caption states.

The properly uniformed maid is obviously bringing to the hostess a tray (silver, of course) bearing a coffeepot (also silver) and cups (finest porcelain) for after-dinner coffee.