loaks
for poverty, ignorance and dishonesty."

"There's a time and place for paint and putty, lath, plaster and paper,
but we ought not to be helplessly dependent upon them."

"Have you any idea how the house will look outside," asked Jack, giving
the fire a poke, "or is that to be left to take care of itself?"

"No, indeed! not left to take care of itself. In that part of the
undertaking we are bound to believe that the architect is wiser than
we, and must accept in all humility what he decrees. Still I think the
law of domestic architecture at least should be 'from within out.' For
the sake of the external appearance it ought not to be necessary to
make the rooms higher or lower than we want them for use, neither
larger nor more irregular in shape. It ought not to be necessary to
build crooked chimneys for the sake of a dignified standing on the
roof, or to make a pretense of a window where none is needed. The
windows are for you and me to look out from and to let in the sunlight,
not for the benefit of outside observers, and should be treated
accordingly. We will not have big posts--mullions, do you call
them?--in the middle of them, as there are in these. When I try to look
down the street to see if you are coming home I can scarcely see
obliquely to the corner of the lot, and we don't get half as much
sunshine as we should if the windows were all in one."

[Illustration: WITH A MULLION AND WITHOUT.]

"Why not, if there's the same amount of glass?"

"Because the sun can't shine around a corner; and Jack, why did you set
them so near the floor? There's no chance for a seat under them, and
they do not give as much light or ventilation as they would if they ran
nearly up to the ceiling."

"What is the use of making them long at the top? They are always half
covered up with lambrequins or some fanciful contrivance."

"Indeed, they will not be; our windows will be arranged to be wholly
uncovered whenever we need the light. Too many windows are not so
unmanageable as too many doors, and I should like one room with a whole
broadside of glass; but for most rooms the fewer windows the better,
provided they are broad and high. I despise a room in which you can't
sit down without being in front of a window or walk around without
running against a door, that has no large wall spaces for pictures and
no room for a piano, a book-case, a cabinet or a large lounge. A small
room, that has doors or windows on all sides does