my collection of faded French costume prints set flat against the top of the wall as a frieze.  The hall was so very narrow that as you went up stairs you could actually examine the old prints in detail.  Another little thing:  I covered the handrail of the stairs with a soft gray-green velvet of the same tone as the woodwork, and the effect was so very good and the touch of it so very nice that many of my friends straightway adopted the idea.

But I am placing the cart before the horse!  I should talk of the shell of the house before the contents, shouldn’t I?  It is hard to talk of this particular house as a thing apart from its furnishings, however, for every bit of paneling, every lighting-fixture, the placing of each mirror, was worked out so that the shell of the house and its furnishings might be in perfect harmony.

The drawing-room and dining-room occupied the first floor of the house.  The drawing-room was a long, narrow room with cream woodwork and walls.  The walls were broken into panels by the use of a narrow molding.  In the large panel above the mantel-shelf I had inset a painting by Nattier.  You will see the same painting used in the Fifty-fifth Street house drawing-room, in another illustration.

The color scheme of rose and cream and dull yellow was worked out from the rose and yellow Persian rug.  Most of the furniture we found in France, but it fitted perfectly into this aristocratic and dignified room.  Miss Marbury and I have a perfect right to French things in our drawing-room, you see, for we are French residents for half the year.  And, besides, this gracious old house welcomed a fine old Louis XIV sofa as serenely as you please.  I have no idea of swallowing my words about unsuitability!

Light, air and comfort—­these three things I must always have in a room, whether it be drawing-room or servant’s room.  This room had all three.  The chairs were all comfortable, the lights well placed, and there was plenty of sunshine and air.  The color of the room was so subdued that it was restful to the eye—­one color faded into another so subtly that one did not realize there was a definite color-scheme.  The hangings of the room were of a deep rose color.  I used the same colors in the coverings of the chairs and sofas.  The house was curtained throughout with fine white muslin curtains.  No matter what the inner curtains of a room may be, I use this simple stuff against the window itself.  There isn’t any nicer material.  To me there is something unsuitable in an array of lace against a window, like underclothes hung up to dry.

[Illustration:  A WASHINGTON IRVING HOUSE BEDROOM]