f life, when means
are comparatively restricted, there is yet wide room for thought and
the judicious application of money.

In looking over houses to be rented by persons of moderate means, one
cannot help longing to build,--one sees so many ways in which the same
sum which built an inconvenient and unpleasant house might have been
made to build a delightful one.

* * * * *

"That's so!" said Bob with emphasis. "Don't you remember, Marianne,
how many dismal, commonplace, shabby houses we trailed through?"

"Yes," said Marianne. "You remember those houses with such little
squeezed rooms and that flourishing staircase, with the colored-glass
china-closet window, and no butler's sink?"

"Yes," said Bob; "and those astonishing, abominable stone abortions
that adorned the doorsteps. People do lay out a deal of money to make
houses look ugly, it must be confessed."

"One would willingly," said Marianne, "dispense with frightful stone
ornaments in front, and with heavy mouldings inside, which are of no
possible use or beauty, and with showy plaster cornices and
centrepieces in the parlor ceilings, and even with marble mantels, for
the luxury of hot and cold water in each chamber, and a couple of
comfortable bath-rooms. Then, the disposition of windows and doors is
so wholly without regard to convenience! How often we find rooms,
meant for bedrooms, where really there is no good place for either bed
or dressing-table!"

Here my wife looked up, having just finished redrawing the plans to
the latest alteration.

"One of the greatest reforms that could be, in these reforming days,"
she observed, "would be to have women architects. The mischief with
houses built to rent is that they are all mere male contrivances. No
woman would ever plan chambers where there is no earthly place to set
a bed except against a window or door, or waste the room in entries
that might be made into closets. I don't see, for my part, apropos to
the modern movement for opening new professions to the female sex, why
there should not be well-educated female architects. The planning and
arrangement of houses, and the laying-out of grounds, are a fair
subject of womanly knowledge and taste. It is the teaching of Nature.
What would anybody think of a bluebird's nest that had been built
entirely by Mr. Blue, without the help of his wife?"

"My dear," said I, "you must positively send a paper on this subject
to the next