sk me: How shall I furnish my living-room? What paper
shall I use on the walls? What woodwork and curtains--and rugs? One
woman asked me what books she should buy!

Your living-room should grow out of the needs of your daily life. There
could be no two living-rooms exactly alike in scheme if they were lived
in. You will have to decide on the wall colors and such things, it is
true, but the rest of the room should grow of itself. You will not make
the mistake of using a dark paper of heavy figures if you are going to
use many pictures and books, for instance. You will not use a gay
bed-roomy paper covered with flowers and birds. You will know without
being told that your wall colors must be neutral: that your woodwork
must be stained and waxed, or painted some soft tone of your wall color.
Then, let the rugs and curtains and things go until you decide you have
to have them. The room will gradually find itself, though it may take
years and heartache and a certain self-confession of inadequacy. It will
express your life, if you use it, so be careful of the life you live in
it!

XII

SITTING-ROOM AND BOUDOIR

In some strange way the word _boudoir_ has lost its proper significance.
People generally think of it as a highfalutin' name for the bedroom, or
for a dressing-room, whereas really a proper _boudoir_ is the small
personal sitting-room of a woman of many interests. It began in old
France as the private sitting-room of the mistress of the house, a part
of the bedroom suite, and it has evolved into a sort of office _de luxe_
where the house mistress spends her precious mornings, plans the routine
of her household for the day, writes her letters, interviews her
servants, and so forth. The boudoir has a certain suggestion of intimacy
because it is a personal and not a general room, but while it may be
used as a lounging-place occasionally, it is also a thoroughly dignified
room where a woman may receive her chosen friends when she pleases.
Nothing more ridiculous has ever happened than the vogue of the
so-called "boudoir cap," which is really suited only to one's bedroom or
dressing-room. Such misnomers lead to a mistaken idea of the real
meaning of the word.

Some of the Eighteenth Century boudoirs were extremely small. I recall
one charming little room in an old French house that was barely eight
feet by eleven, but it contained a fireplace, two windows, a day bed,
one of those graceful desks known as a _bon