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]
The most delightful part of the drawing-room was the little
conservatory, which was a plain, lamentable bay-window once upon a time.
I determined to make a little flower-box of it, and had the floor of it
paved with large tiles, and between the hardwood floor of the
drawing-room and the marble of the window space was a narrow curb of
marble, which made it possible to have a jolly little fountain in the
window. The fountain splashed away to its heart's content, for there was
a drain pipe under the curb. At the top of the windows there were
shallow white boxes filled with trailing ivy that hung down and screened
the glass, making the window as delightful to the passer-by without as
to us within. There were several pots of rose-colored flowers standing
in a prim row on the marble curb.
You see how much simpler it is to make the best of an old bay window
than to build on a new conservatory. There are thousands of houses with
windows like this one of ours, an unfortunate space of which no use is
made.
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