What quality the rug shall be depends largely upon the length of our purse; yet sagacity and a modest fund will sometimes do more than plethora and no thought.  Design selection is a task to vex the most patient, but we must not be drawn into a hurried decision.  If we are near enough to the business house with which we are dealing, it is advisable to have a selection of rugs sent out for inspection on the floors.  Seen in the salesroom and in our house they may present different aspects.

Generally speaking, the showiest designs are in the cheaper goods, and the showier a cheap article is the quicker its shoddy qualities will be made manifest.  Therefore, if we must count the pennies on our living-room rug, let us select a simple design with a good body—­something that will be unobtrusive even when it begins to appeal for replacement.

There is a considerable range of Wiltons, from the so-called Wilton velvet to the “Royal” Wilton.  They are by no means the cheapest, though one may go fabulously beyond them in price; but their popularity shows them to be a good average quality, suited to the home planned on a modest scale.  Body Brussels, although not affording such rich effects, also has many friends, and tapestry Brussels may be considered.  There are names innumerable for rugs and carpets, some of which have little real significance.  If one knows a good design when it is seen, a little common-sense observation of weights and weave and a thoughtful comparison of prices will help to secure the best selections.  Here are some specimen sizes and prices quoted by one establishment: 

Size.       Body Brussels.    Biglow Bagdad.    Anglo-Indian.
6.0 x  9.0....... $18.00          $25.00           $30.00
8.3 x 10.6.......  22.50           30.00            45.00
9.0 x 10.6.......  25.00           35.00            50.00
10.6 x 12.0.......  32.50           45.00            65.00
10.6 x 13.6.......  35.00           52.50            75.00
11.3 x 15.0.......  42.50           60.00            80.00

Saxony Axminster, 9 by 12, is priced at $45, and is considered to be more serviceable than most grades of Wilton.

For the dining room the problem is about the same as for the principal apartment.  The rug need not be so expensive as the one in the living room, but it must assuredly be of the enduring sort.

The Scotch Caledon rugs sometimes solve the difficulty here.  Indeed, they are not out of place in a really “homey” living room or elsewhere in the house.  They are made of wool, woven like an ingrain, with no nap, and are especially pleasing for their artistic soft colorings, mostly in green or blue two-tone effects.  They are, strictly speaking, not reversible, but some designs will permit use on both sides.  While they do not wear quite so well as a Wilton, they come at least a fifth cheaper.  Prices range from $9 for a 4.6 by 7.6 to $45 for a 12 by 15.

The sizes we have mentioned are standard.  If our rooms have been planned in such wise as to require rugs to order we shall have to add ten per cent to our expenditures.