"The secret, Alex, is that there's probably no one in the room, except perhaps you and one or two other first-time guests, who takes any of this seriously."

Guild members and first-time guests may attend without charge.

It was peak season, which may have been the reason a couple of first-time guests were given laminated maps of the complex and left to find their own way around.

We also have guest relations staff to greet all first-time guests.

How embarrassing for a first-time guest to confess at the breakfast table the next morning that half the lumpy mattress accidentally fell through the rustic wood frame.

"I wouldn't serve my worst enemy reheated biscuits in time of famine," she tells a first-time guest at tea.

The ultimate honor, the summons to the couch, was given to only a half-dozen first-time guests during Carson's 30-year-reign.

That hardly mattered, for the warm hospitality of the hostess and waiter made first-time guests welcome.

And Vladimir Feltsman, the Russian pianist who emigrated to the United States last month, was a first-time guest.

Mr. Fillaud took over the two-story restaurant in 2002 and has been on site ever since, chatting up and charming first-time guests and regulars alike.