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THE DRAWING-ROOM
A      DRAWING-ROOM        is the logical place for
the elegancies of family life. The ideal
drawing-room, to my mind, contains many
comfortable chairs and sofas, many softly shaded lights
by night, and plenty of sunshine by day, well-balanced
mirrors set in simple paneled walls, and any number of
small tables that may be brought out into the room
if need be, and an open fire.
The old idea of the drawing-room was a horrible
apartment of stiffness and formality and discomfort.
No wonder it was used only for weddings and funerals!
The modern drawing-room is intended, primarily, as a
place where a hostess may entertain her friends, and it
must not be chill and uninviting, whatever else it may
be. It should not be littered up with personal things
-magazines, books and work-baskets and objects that
belong in the living-room-but it welcomes flowers
and objets d'art, collections of fans, or miniatures, or
graceful mirrors, or old French prints, or enamels, or
porcelains. It should be a place where people may
converse without interruption from the children.
Most houses, even of the smaller sort, have three
day rooms-the dining-room, the parlor and the sit-
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