colours which we like have a soothing effect upon us, those which we
do not like are, on the other hand, an unwelcome influence. If a woman
says in her heart, I hate green, or red, or I dislike any one colour,
and then is obliged to live in its neighbourhood, she will find herself
dwelling with an enemy. We all know that there are colours of which a
little is enjoyable when a mass would be unendurable. Predominant
scarlet would be like close companionship with a brass band, but a note
of scarlet is one of the most valuable of sensations. The gray
compounded of black and white would be a wet blanket to all bubble of
wit or spring of fancy, but the shadows of rose colour are gray,
pink-tinted it is true; indeed the shadow of pink used to be known by
the name of _ashes of roses_. I remember seeing once in Paris--that home
of bad general decoration--a room in royal purples; purple velvet on
walls, furniture, and hangings. One golden Rembrandt in the middle of a
long wall, and a great expanse of ochre-coloured parquetted floor were
all that saved it from the suggestion of a royal tomb. As it was, I left
the apartment with a feeling of treading softly as when we pass through
a door hung with crape. Vagaries of this kind are remediable when they
occur in cravats, or bonnets, or gloves--but a room in the wrong colour!
Saints and the angels preserve us!

[Illustration: SITTING-ROOM IN "WILD WOOD." ONTEORA (BELONGING TO MISS
LUISITA LELAND)]

The number, size, and placing of the windows will greatly affect the
intensity of colour to be used. It must always be remembered that any
interior is dark as compared with out-of-doors, and that in the lightest
room there will be dark corners or spaces where the colour chosen as
chief tint will seem much darker than it really is. A paper or textile
chosen in a good light will look several shades darker when placed in
large unbroken masses or spaces upon the wall, and a fully furnished
room will generally be much darker when completed than might be expected
in planning it. For this reason, in choosing a favourite tint, it is
better on many accounts to choose it in as light a shade as one finds
agreeable. It can be repeated in stronger tones in furniture or in small
and unimportant furnishings of the room, but the wall tone should never
be deeper than medium in strength, at the risk of having all the light
absorbed by the colour, and of losing a sense of atmosphere in the room.
There is ano