of almost any tint which includes the general one of the
room, even if the general tint is not prominent in the rug. If the use
or luxury of the room requires more covered space, it is better to use
one rug of a larger size than several small and perhaps conflicting
ones. Of course in this the general tone of the rug must be chosen for
its affinity to the tone of the room, but that affinity secured, any
variations of colour occurring in the design are apt to add to the
general effect.

[Illustration: SQUARE HALL IN CITY HOUSE]

A certain amount of contrast to prevailing colour is an advantage, and
the general value of rugs in a scheme of decoration is that they furnish
this contrast in small masses or divisions, so well worked in with other
tints and tones that it makes its effect without opposition to the
general plan.

Thus, in a room where the walls are of a pale shade of copper, the rugs
should bring in a variety of reds which would be natural parts of the
same scale, like lower notes in the octave; and yet should add patches
of relative blues and harmonising greens; possibly also, deep gold, and
black and white;--the latter in minute forms and lines which only accent
or enrich the general effect.

It is really an interesting problem, why the strong colours generally
used in Oriental rugs should harmonise so much better with weaker tints
in walls and furniture than even the most judiciously selected carpets
can possibly do. It is true there are bad Oriental rugs, very bad ones,
just as there may be a villain in any congregation of the righteous, but
certainly the long centuries of Eastern manufacture, reaching back to
the infancy of the world, have given Eastern nations secrets not to be
easily mastered by the people of later days.

But if we cannot tell with certainty why good rugs fit all places and
circumstances, while any other thing of mortal manufacture must have its
place carefully prepared for it, we may perhaps assume to know why the
most beautiful of modern carpets are not as easily managed and as
successful.

In the first place having explained that some contrast, some fillip of
opposing colour, something which the artist calls _snap_, is absolutely
required in every successful colour scheme, we shall see that if we are
to get this by simple means of a carpet, we must choose one which
carries more than one colour in its composition, and colour introduced
as design must come under the laws of mechan