At Home with the Jardines

ving in goes it one better," but his preference is based on the solid satisfaction he takes in putting in two shelves

efore I made a single purchase was full of possibilities, and contained wil

evening as the Ange

ent of Europe," "have

Pet theories

ekeep

stand. I've never ke

furniture and manage her servants to suit you, or e

he Angel, laying down his

at's what I wanted to bring out. Now I hav

he

made of bed-ticking, and had a draw-string in it and hung in the bathroom closet. Now if you ever tried to lift a heavy bag down from a hook and knew the bother of emptying it of neat little rolls of every sort of cloth f

Angel, who is defini

ll have to do is to pull out an easy sliding drawer without opening a door that sticks, or crawling into a dark corner, or having to light a candle, or doing anything to ruffle your tempe

nting material, was so enchanted with the picture I drew t

asked, laying Draper on his kne

are about buy

hing good," sai

ome things beautiful. And

flop just here. But perhaps it was only Aub

lby"?' And he said no, but his wife had when it was the rage about five years ago. I had brought a copy on purpose, so I read him that paragraph from the first chapter describing the studio. Here it is: 'An immense divan spread itself in width and length and delightful thickness just beneath the big north win

did he

aid: 'No, no! This is a luxury. There is to be nothing useful about it. I want the whole inside given up to springs!' He said, 'Turkish?' and I said yes, and put in two sets of them. At that he began to catch the spirit of the thing and took an interest. We argued so over th

ttle room?" asked my husband, wit

amp with a ground-glass globe and a green shade to be good for the eyes. Your pipe-rack will be on the wall over it. Then by squeezing

where I had my list, and Drap

reciative, and, moreover, is never too absorbed or too tired to express it flue

nter evening-y and s

wling," said the Angel.

be with us at death. Some furniture stays by you like a murder. For instance, a dining-room table. I have known some very rich people in my life, Aubrey, but I have

ve, but it is fraught

d Furniture' would

e very handsome modern dining-rooms marred by a dinner-table too good to th

You are right, I have. I thoug

palace. We can be proud of it even when we are rich. Yet it is not showy, or one which will be too screamingly prominent. It is of

sper reached him. But he did not c

is the way I have planned the rest of

Then where will yo

airs. There will be books and magazines. It will not be a library, for quantities of bookcases discourage the frivolous. It will have no gilt chairs, because big men always want to sit in them. It wi

eople will call it a parlour in

fectually prevent the discriminating from making that mistake. I i

cour

nified to prevent familiarity. I shall endeavour to invest it with an invitation which will practically say t

looked t

will work

d I don't approve of this separating men and women,-the women remaining alone to gossi

n are chimneys. They don't know ho

mfort, so ready with an ash-tray, so eager to offer them the last cigar in the ja

axed ent

that room will be '

g,' wo

, for behold, we will simply move all this comfort I have described into a library, and the wear on the furniture will redeem it from newne

Angel, with convic

me so that what little common sense I was born with instantly departs, and I buy feverishly, mostly things I do not want and could not use. So the An

, and I'll get you

ey attacked the proposition of housekeeping with the intention of seeing how much fun there is in it, of how much pleasure could be got out of making a home, not merely keeping house, and of feeding their conceit with the fuel of a determination to keep house better than any woman of their acquaintance. The simple but fascinating problem of how to make

humour, and few husbands take the intens

es in fact, which is much more worth while. We Americans have the lovely word "Home," but we haven't as a nation the article in fact. Americans have hous

ardine's husband is the happiest man I know," than to have them read on a bronze tablet under a statue in the Louvre, "Faith Jardine, Sculptor." For if more ambitious women would devote themselves to making one neglected husband happy the publ

ect as to be impossible to get on with. I revel in his weaknesses, they are so human and companionable, and give me such a feeling of satisfaction when summing up my o

ll in black frames. Small pink roses tumbling on the ceiling and looking as if every moment they would scatter their curling petals on the pink rugs on the floor

icked out respectively with pink and blue, would flutter at the sunny windows, and though simplicity itself, nothing ever struck me as any more attractive, for it was all mine-my first house-my first housekeeping! When this dream really came true, I walked around in suc

ring who would be its first occupant. Would it be a man or a woman? Would it be Art

compulsory hospitality, with the cost counted beforehand and the benefits we expected in return discounted. No, whoever it was to be

, within thi

whoe'er

o mournfu

hy peacef

morrow fret

ghts of c

s thy chang

urrounds t

p sw

nig

this momentary reverie came back to me, and I lo

linen. The Angel did not believe I would stick to it, but I did embroider it all myself. And as to hemming napkins and table-cloths-I challenge any nun i

get permanently angry if you invite them to dinner, and let them eat off hemmed and embroidered damask. Believe me. You may send cards to six rec

ere in New York, where rents are so abnormal, people economize first of all upon their friends, and I am told that an extra bedroom where a chance guest may be asked to remain overnight is the exception with people of moderate means. Such monstrous selfishness struck me as appalling. To p

ally? I would rather suffer that than cripple myself spirituall

ged it, and in t

lling, we can save a g

el always grew deeply attentive

e most housekeepers are perfectly willing to economize. But we can and will buy white iron beds with brass trimmings for almost nothing,-they are all the same size as the fine bra

l it look?"

ank-account loo

were afraid of what other wom

economy in order the better to provide for our guests, I think even New Yorkers would hesitate to criticize the

hing in that,"