well enough,
all right; let it stay as it is, and let a fellow stay where he can do
as he pleases and feels at home;" and to this view of the matter would
respond divers of the nice young bachelors who were Arthur's and Tom's
sworn friends.

In fact nobody wanted to stay in our parlor now. It was a cold,
correct, accomplished fact; the household fairies had left it,--and
when the fairies leave a room, nobody ever feels at home in it. No
pictures, curtains, no wealth of mirrors, no elegance of lounges, can
in the least make up for their absence. They are a capricious little
set; there are rooms where they will not stay, and rooms where they
will; but no one can ever have a good time without them.

II

HOMEKEEPING VERSUS HOUSEKEEPING

I am a frank-hearted man, as perhaps you have by this time perceived,
and you will not, therefore, be surprised to know that I read my last
article on the carpet to my wife and the girls before I sent it to the
"Atlantic," and we had a hearty laugh over it together. My wife and
the girls, in fact, felt that they could afford to laugh, for they had
carried their point, their reproach among women was taken away, they
had become like other folks. Like other folks they had a parlor, an
undeniable best parlor, shut up and darkened, with all proper carpets,
curtains, lounges, and marble-topped tables, too good for human
nature's daily food; and being sustained by this consciousness, they
cheerfully went on receiving their friends in the study, and having
good times in the old free-and-easy way; for did not everybody know
that this room was not their best? and if the furniture was
old-fashioned and a little the worse for antiquity, was it not certain
that they had better, which they could use if they would?

"And supposing we wanted to give a party," said Jenny, "how nicely our
parlor would light up! Not that we ever do give parties, but if we
should,--and for a wedding-reception, you know."

I felt the force of the necessity; it was evident that the four or
five hundred extra which we had expended was no more than such solemn
possibilities required.

"Now, papa thinks we have been foolish," said Marianne, "and he has
his own way of making a good story of it; but, after all, I desire to
know if people are never to get a new carpet. Must we keep the old one
till it actually wears to tatters?"

This is a specimen of the _reductio ad absurdum_ which our fair
antagonists of the other