“…They were to pass again through the hall of the inn to get into the street, and it was here she presently checked him with a question.

‘Have you looked up my name?’  He could only stop with a laugh.  ‘Have you looked up mine?’

‘Oh dear, yes – as soon as you left me.  I went to the office and asked.  Hadn’t you better do the same?’ He wondered.  ‘Find out who you are? – after the uplifted young woman there has seen us thus scrape acquaintance!’

She laughed on her side now at the shade of alarm in his amusement.  ‘Isn’t it a reason the more?  If what you’re afraid of is the injury for me – my being seen to walk off with a gentleman who has to ask who I am – I assure you I don’t in the least mind.  Here, however,’ she continued, ‘is my card, and as I find there’s something else again I have to say at the office, you can just study it during the moment I leave you.’

She left him after he had taken from her the small pasteboard she had extracted from her pocket-book, and he had extracted another from his own, to exchange with it, before she came back.  He read thus the simple designation ‘Maria Gostrey,’…”

– The Ambassadors by Henry James

Why do such good things die away?  I don’t know about you, but I have a terrible time recalling names.  Hence the beauty of a calling card.  I know we have business cards – essentially the same thing – but life is not just about defining one’s self by one’s business.  More times than not, I don’t believe it should.

I was able to attend the delightful dinner party hosted by Home & Hill and Beth Kirby back in January. These cards were used as place cards at the event. What to do with all the extras that were printed?  Repurposed into calling cards!  Thanks for the gift Home & Hill!