IN THE BEGINNING 



economize space. Nowadays when one gets a 

 new maid she has to be measured to see if she 'II 

 fit the pantry. A friend of mine had a maid 

 who actually stuck fast in the back stairway and 

 had to be pulled out by the heels. As they 

 could not enlarge the stairway, she resigned, and 

 her place was filled by a new maid two sizes 

 smaller. I know of a palace built for a merchant 

 prince in which the choicest bedroom had abso- 

 lutely no vacant wall space for a bureau, the 

 whole being occupied by an enormous circular 

 window, beautiful to look at, especially from the 

 outside, but of no utility at all in a bedroom. 

 The architect was an artist, of course, or he never 

 could have thought of such a window, so he 

 was able to design a bureau for this particular 

 room. It was practically two bureaus in one, 

 with two mirrors back to back, and it was in- 

 tended to rest in the centre of the circular window, 

 the front of one side being square and the other 

 circular, following the curve of the window. 

 Windows ought to be put in a building for the 

 purpose of giving light to the occupants, but 

 they seem to be generally arranged for the pur- 

 pose of making a building look artistic from the 

 outside. The municipal building of a great city 



9 



