HEAVEN'S HARMONY 13 



adds a personal touch to the surroundings. Any one 

 among us can recall places set in immaculately kept 

 lawns, with perchance a single foliage bed laid with 

 mathematical precision. Day after day for years we may 

 pass the gate without any conception of who dwells 

 within or what manner of man he is. 



Drawing rooms of this type are familiar, and whole 

 houses whose interiors keep the secrets of the tastes of 

 their masters and mistresses. Far more lovable are the 

 pretty, disorderly rooms with books and papers, pictures 

 hung here and there, bric-a-brac treasured from child- 

 hood, reflecting moods and every holiday of the year. 

 True, the art decorator frowns on this. "Away with it 

 all !" he cries. "Look to simplicity !" And should you 

 heed him and visit that room devoid of its nonsense, you 

 would discover to your sorrow that its soul had fled. 



Nowhere could be found the suggestive lures to book 

 and to picture worlds; gone the memory of happy occa- 

 sions amid the distraction of matching colors and simple 

 forgetfulness a day without friends, a future that 

 stretches like a desert to the far horizon. Yes, you are 

 saved dusting; but imagine being imprisoned in this 

 coldly correct and conventional chamber, and compare it 

 with what might have been had you but the foolish orna- 

 ments of childhood, the old dictionary, the prints, and 

 the stack of torn music heaped on a convenient chair, and 

 the bookcases about. Who lives in this tastes of the 



