f the desk are the tray for cards, the pad and pencils.

The only other furniture in the hall is an old porter's chair near the
door, a chair that suggests the sedan of old France, but serves its
purpose admirably.

A glass door leads to the inner hall and the stairway, which I consider
the best thing in the house. Instead of the usual steep and gloomy
stairs with which we are all familiar, here is a graceful spiral
stairway which runs from this floor to the roof. The stair hall has two
walls made up of mirrors in the French fashion, that is, cut in squares
and held in place by small rosettes of gilt, and these mirrored walls
seemingly double the spaciousness of what would be, under ordinary
conditions, a gloomy inside hallway.

The house is narrow in the extreme, and the secret of its
successful renaissance is plenty of windows and light color and
mirrors--mirrors--mirrors! It has been called the "Little House of Many
Mirrors," for so much of its spaciousness and charm is the effect of
skilfully managed reflections. The stair-landings are most ingeniously
planned. There are landings that lead directly from the stairs into the
rooms of each floor, and back of one of the mirrored stair walls there
is a little balcony connecting the rooms on that floor, a private
passageway.

The drawing-room and dining-room occupy the first floor. The
drawing-room is a pleasant, friendly place, full of quiet color. The
walls are a deep cream color and the floor is covered with a beautiful
Savonnerie rug. There are many beautiful old chairs covered with
Aubusson tapestry, and other chairs and sofas covered with rose colored
brocade. This drawing-room is seemingly a huge place, this effect being
given by the careful placing of mirrors and lights, and the skilful
arrangement of the furniture. I believe in plenty of optimism and white
paint, comfortable chairs with lights beside them, open fires on the
hearth and flowers wherever they "belong," mirrors and sunshine in all
rooms.

But I think we can carry the white paint idea too far: I have grown a
little tired of over-careful decorations, of plain white walls and white
woodwork, of carefully matched furniture and over-cautious
color-schemes. Somehow the feeling of homey-ness is lost when the
decorator is too careful. In this drawing-room there is furniture of
many woods, there are stuffs of many weaves, there are candles and
chandeliers and reading-lamps, but there is harmony of purpo