Most of us have a healthy interest in people, a need for friends and the will to enjoy them. If, beyond that, you try to learn the techniques which make entertaining as simple as possible, you will entertain well. It is easy enough to analyze what makes a party bad, and quite difficult to pin down what makes a good party. I shall try to point out the principal duties of a host and hostess after a party has started and show how those duties can be unobtrusively carried out.

are they happy?
How, for instance, can you tell whether guests are having a happy time? It isn't likely that you will get overt signs of unhappiness, like long, cross faces or bursts of rage or tears. Hosts have to become pretty good readers of expression. If you glance around your living room or down your dinner table and see a guest who looks bored, bewildered or angry, it's time for you to act. Before you make an overt gesture, how­ever, it's advisable to be sure your diagnosis is right. Get yourself into the conversation in which this guest is participating. Maybe he was born with a face that looks unhappy but he is really having a good time. When you're satisfied that he is happy, you can withdraw un­obtrusively. But if you find that he is unhappy, you change the situa­tion without obviously shifting people around. That's subtle business and not easy. It's better to let your guests solve these problems them­selves than to be too active hosts. Perhaps you will work the conversa­tion around to a subject which you know interests your bored guest. If it's a matter of a group in which things are going badly, join it and again change the conversation, or lead off the trouble-maker to another guest with whom he may have more in common; or ask him to help you do something. Each of us has to develop his own tactful means of accomplishing these changes, but you do it without taking over entirely and without making anyone feel uncomfortable.

older guests
If you've invited one older person or couple to a party composed largely of your own contemporaries, you should feel a particular re­sponsibility for them. It's a question which only you can decide whether it's a good idea to mix ages at a party. If you invite older peo­ple whom you particularly like, you must be sure that some of your friends will be as eager as you are to see that they have a good time. In any event, you must keep a more than usually watchful eye on the party, with special awareness for your older guests.