I remember seeing one plate glass window that was well worth while.  It was in the mountain studio of an artist and it was fully eight by ten feet—­one unbroken sheet of glass which framed a marvelous vista of mountain and valley.  It goes without saying that such a window requires no curtain other than one that is to be drawn at night.

The ideal treatment for the ordinary single window is a soft curtain of some thin white stuff hung flat and full against the glass.  This curtain should have an inch and a half hem at the bottom and a narrow hem at the sides.  It should be strung on a small brass rod, and should be placed as close to the glass as possible, leaving just enough space for the window shade beneath it.  The curtain should hang in straight folds to the window sill, escaping it by half an inch or so.

I hope it is not necessary for me to go into the matter of lace curtains here.  I feel sure that no woman of really good taste could prefer a cheap curtain of imitation lace to a simple one of white swiss-muslin.  I have never seen a house room that was too fine for a swiss-muslin curtain, though of course there are many rooms that would welcome no curtains whatever wherein the windows are their own excuse for being.  Lace curtains, even if they may have cost a king’s ransom, are in questionable taste, to put it mildly.  Use all the lace you wish on your bed linen and table linen, but do not hang it up at your windows for passers-by to criticize.

[Illustration:  PRINTED LINEN CURTAINS OVER ROSE-COLORED SILK]

Many women do not feel the need of inside curtains.  Indeed, they are not necessary in all houses.  They are very attractive when they are well hung, and they give the window a distinction and a decorative charm that is very valuable.  I am using many photographs that show the use of inside curtains.  You will observe that all of these windows have glass curtains of plain white muslin, no matter what the inside curtain may be.

Chintz curtains are often hung with a valance about ten or twelve inches deep across the top of the window.  These valances should be strung on a separate rod, so that the inside curtains may be pulled together if need be.  The ruffled valance is more suitable for summer cottages and bedrooms than for more formal rooms.  A fitted valance of chintz or brocade is quite dignified enough for a drawing-room or any other.

In my bedroom I have used a printed linen with a flat valance.  This printed linen is in soft tones of rose and green on a cream ground.  The side curtains have a narrow fluted binding of rose-colored silk.  Under these curtains are still other curtains of rose-colored shot silk, and beneath those are white muslin glass curtains.  With such a window treatment the shot silk curtains are the ones that are drawn together at night, making a very soft, comforting sort of color arrangement.  You will observe in this photograph that the panels between doors and windows are filled with mirrors that run the full length from the molding to the baseboard.  This is a very beautiful setting for the windows, of course.