sses used in decoration, or the rules of
treatment which will modify a low and dark room and make it seem light
and airy, or "bring down" too high a ceiling and widen narrow walls so
as to apparently correct disproportion? These things are the results of
laws which she has never studied--laws of compensation and relation,
which belong exclusively to the world of colour, and unfortunately they
are not so well formulated that they can be committed to memory like
rules of grammar; yet all good colour-practice rests upon them as
unquestionably as language rests upon grammatical construction.

Of course one may use colour as one can speak a language, purely by
imitation and memory, but it is not absolutely reliable practice; and
just here comes in the necessity for professional advice.

There are many difficulties in the accomplishment of a perfect
house-interior which few householders have had the time or experience to
cope with, and yet the fact remains that each mistress of a house
believes that unless she vanquishes all difficulties and comes out
triumphantly with colours flying at the housetop and enjoyment and
admiration following her efforts, she has failed in something which she
should have been perfectly able to accomplish. But the obligation is
certainly a forced one. It is the result of the modern awakening to the
effect of many heretofore unrecognized influences in our lives and the
lives and characters of our children. A beautiful home is undoubtedly a
great means of education, and of that best of all education which is
unconscious. To grow up in such a one means a much more complete and
perfect man or woman than would be possible without that particular
influence.

But a perfect home is never created all at once and by one person, and
let the anxious house-mistress take comfort in the thought. She should
also remember that it is in the nature of beauty to _grow_, and that a
well-rounded and beautiful family life adds its quota day by day. Every
book, every sketch or picture--every carefully selected or
characteristic object brought into the home adds to and makes a part of
a beautiful whole, and no house can be absolutely perfect without all
these evidences of family life.

It can be made ready for them, completely and perfectly ready, by
professional skill and knowledge; but if it remained just where the
interior artist or decorator left it, it would have no more of the
sentiment of domesticity than a stat