ithin three feet of the front
door, and turning it directly around, so that it ends at the back
instead of the front of the hall. The two cut ends are connected by a
platform, thrown across from wall to wall, and furnished with a low
railing of carved panels, and turned spindles, which gives a charming
balcony effect. The passage to the back hall and stairs passes under the
balcony and upper end of the staircase, while the space under the lower
stair-end, screened by a portiere, adds a coat-closet to the
conveniences of the reception-hall.

This change was not a difficult thing to accomplish, it was simply an
_expedient_, but it has the value of carefully planned construction,
and reminds one of the clever utterance of the immortal painter who
said, "I never lose an accident."

Indeed the ingenious home-maker often finds that the worse a thing is,
the better it can be made by competent and careful study. To complete
and adapt incompetent things to orderliness and beauty, to harmonise
incongruous things into a perfect whole requires and exercises ability
of a high order, and the consciousness of its possession is no small
satisfaction. That it is constantly being done shows how much real
cleverness is necessary to ordinary life--and reminds one of the
patriotic New York state senator who declared that it required more
ability to cross Broadway safely at high tide, than to be a great
statesman. And truly, to make a good house out of a poor one, or a
beautiful interior from an ugly one, requires far more thought, and far
more original talent, than to decorate an important new one. The one
follows a travelled path--the other makes it.

Of course competent knowledge saves one from many difficulties; and
faults of construction must be met by knowledge, yet this is often
greatly aided by natural cleverness, and in the course of long practice
in the decorative arts, I have seen such refreshing and charming results
from thoughtful untrained intelligence,--I might almost say
inspiration,--that I have great respect for its manifestations;
especially when exercised in un-authoritative fashion.

CHAPTER IV

COLOUR IN HOUSES

_"Heaven gives us of its colour, for our joy,
Hues which have words and speak to ye of heaven."_

Although the very existence of a house is a matter of construction, its
general interior effect is almost entirely the result of colour
treatment and careful and cultivated selection of accessor