must also
answer for the reception of guests, a perfect beauty and dignity may be
achieved by harmony of colour, beauty of form, and appropriateness to
purpose, and this may be carried to almost any degree of perfection by
the introduction and accompaniment of pictures. In this case art is a
part of the room, as well as an adornment of it. It is kneaded into
every article of furniture. It is the daily bread of art to which we are
all entitled, and which can make a small country home, or a smaller
city apartment, as enjoyable and elevating as if it were filled with the
luxuries of art.

[Illustration: RUSTIC SOFA AND TABLES IN "PENNYROYAL" (IN MRS. BOUDINOT
KEITH'S COTTAGE, ONTEORA)]

But one may say, "It requires knowledge to do this; much knowledge in
the selection of the comparatively few things which are to make up such
an interior," and that is true--and the knowledge is to be proved every
time we come to the test of buying. Yet it is a curious fact that the
really _good_ thing, the thing which is good in art as well as
construction, will inevitably be chosen by an intelligent buyer, instead
of the thing which is bad in art and in construction. Fortunately, one
can see good examples in the shops of to-day, where twenty years ago at
best only honest and respectable furniture was on exhibition. One must
rely somewhat on the character of the places from which one buys, and
not expect good styles and reliable manufacture where commercial
success is the dominant note of the business. In truth the careful buyer
is not so apt to fail in quality as in harmony, because grade as well as
style in different articles and manufactures is to be considered. What
is perfectly good in one grade of manufacture will not be in harmony
with a higher or lower grade in another. Just as we choose our grade of
floor-covering from ingrain to Aubusson, we must choose the grade of
other furnishings. Even an inexperienced buyer would be apt to feel
this, and would know that if she found a simple ingrain-filling
appropriate to a bed-chamber, maple or enamelled furniture would belong
to it, instead of more costly inlaid or carved pieces.

It may be well to reiterate the fact that the predominant use of each
room in a house gives the clew to the best rules of treatment in
decoration and furniture. For instance, the hall, being an intermediate
space between in and out of doors, should be coloured and furnished in
direct reference to this, and to