-for-being.

Whenever it is possible, I believe the man of the house should also have
a small sitting-room that corresponds to his wife's boudoir. We
Americans have made a violent attempt to incorporate a room of this kind
in our houses by introducing a "den" or a "study," but somehow the man
of the house is never keen about such a room. A "den" to him means an
airless cubby-hole of a room hung with pseudo-Turkish draperies and
papier-mache shields and weapons, and he has a mighty aversion to it.
Who could blame him? And as for the study, the average man doesn't want
a study when he wants to work; he prefers to work in his office, and
he'd like a room of his own big enough to hold all his junk, and he'd
like it to have doors and windows and a fireplace. The so-called study
is usually a heavy, cheerless little room that isn't any good for
anything else. The ideal arrangement would be a room of average size
opening from his bedroom, a room that would have little suggestion of
business and a great flavor of his hobbies. His wife's boudoir must be
her office also, but he doesn't need a house office, unless he be a
writer, or a teacher, or some man who works at home. After all, I think
the painters and illustrators are the happiest of all men, because they
_have_ to have studios, and their wives generally recognize the fact,
and give them a free hand. The man who has a studio or a workshop all
his own is always a popular man. He has a fascination for his less
fortunate friends, who buzz around him in wistful admiration.

XIII

A LIGHT, GAY DINING-ROOM

First of all, I think a dining-room should be light, and gay. The first
thing to be considered is plenty of sunshine. The next thing is the
planning of a becoming background for the mistress of the house. The
room should always be gay and charming in color, but the color should be
selected with due consideration of its becomingness to the hostess.
Every woman has a right to be pretty in her own dining-room.

I do not favor the dark, heavy treatments and elaborate stuff hangings
which seem to represent the taste of most of the men who go in for
decorating nowadays. Nine times out of ten the dining-room seems to be
the gloomiest room in the house. I think it should be a place where the
family may meet in gaiety of spirit for a pause in the vexatious
happenings of the day. I think light tones, gay wallpapers, flowers and
sunshine are of more importance than storied t