In the thread below about Darcy's vague "large party of friends", there seems to be a feeling that his servants might be overwhelmed by having more than four or five extra people to take care of. Obviously, Darcy is still a bachelor, and his is not a political household that would have regular house parties for "business" reasons, but he is a rich man. Wouldn't his servants be used to taking care of large groups of guests, expect it, and maybe even pride themselves on it? (As I said in an earlier post, personally I wouldn't call a group "a large party of friends" unless there were at least 10-12 people involved.)