or thing may be spared the kick it
invariably receives, when the master of the house has tripped over its
invisible presence.

For furniture, the cushion stitches, i.e. canvas and cross stitches,
are certainly the best. They are the most enduring, as they bear
friction without fraying; and are therefore, in this case, preferable
to satin stitches, which are liable to be spoilt by contact, and give
the lady of the house, who is probably the artist, a pang each time an
honoured guest occupies the comfortable chair embroidered in floss
silk, unaware that it is an aesthetic investment, and that a percentage
of its beauty is disappearing every time it is brought into collision
with broadcloth.[467] This brings us to the subject of the covers
called "housses" by French upholsterers, and which may come under the
head of small decorations, or rather, of petty disfigurements. The
things which went by the horrid name of "antimacassars" have, however,
given way to "chair-backs," and crochet has been displaced by linen
veils worked in crewels. This is a step in the right direction. No
well-regulated eye could do otherwise than suffer from the glaring
white patterns of crochet-work, mounted aggressively on the back of
every chair in the room, as a buffer between it and the human head and
shoulders. The suggestion was disagreeable, and the present chair-back
still recalls it. To reconcile us to its use, it must be sparingly
used, and artistically disposed. The "antimacassar" is a remaining
sign of the overlap of dress and manners. Our great-grandmothers
embroidered the chairs, and valued them exceedingly, and never would
have contemplated that they should be soiled by a male or female head
lying back upon them. True, they wore powder and pomatum then--but
they never leant back; such a solace, and solecism in manners, was
reserved for the privacy of the bedroom and the arm-chair covered with
cotton pique or washing chintz. Under the new manners, and since the
introduction of the graceful lounge, the antimacassar doubtless has
saved many ancestral works, but nowadays we wear neither powder nor
pomatum. On the contrary, we dye, dry, and frizzle our hair till it
might serve as a brush to remove any dust it encountered, and it
spoils nothing.

The table-cover is a source of endless variety;[468] on the whole I
should recommend here plain surfaces and deep borders. The articles
thrown on the table are best set off by plain grounds. The c