June, 1921 
53 
PLEASANT PLACES for the PRIVACY of GUESTS 
Comfortable Corners Where Those Who Value Solitude Even in a Crowd 
May Enjoy a Few Moments of Peace Apart 
CAROLINE DUER 
N O matter how much hosts 
love their guests, or guests 
their hosts, there are mo¬ 
ments during every visit when to 
be alone in some quiet place is 
most refreshing to the minds of 
both. Hosts can easily obtain se¬ 
clusion. The house and its habits 
are theirs and they can disappear 
with a suggestion of being, like 
Eve, “on hospitable thoughts in¬ 
tent.” But if the guest disappears 
for any length of time, and is 
found shut up in his room, he is 
likely to be considered ill, or dis¬ 
pleased, or simply bored by the 
way he is or isn’t entertained, and 
the impression created may be un¬ 
fortunate. Of course modern man¬ 
ners are much easier than anything 
calling itself manners used to be, but 
even modern manners may demand 
a more constant gathering of the 
company as a whole than is entirely 
agreeable to each member of it. 
How pleasant, then, to be domi¬ 
ciled in a house where there are 
certain corners in which the soli¬ 
tary find a welcome solitude. Few 
people are at their social best in the 
morning, and for those who do not 
care to breakfast in their bedrooms 
(as some hospitable families do) or 
downstairs in company (as some 
other hospitable families do) an 
upstairs sitting room, with plants 
and flowers about and one’s fruit, 
egg and chocolate temptingly ar¬ 
ranged on a charming little table, 
would have a calming effect. It 
would raise the spirits and give 
the most hermit-crabbish of guests 
a good send-off for the day. 
Then a desk in the library, with 
a window to the left of one—as a 
window near any writing-table 
should be-—is a convenient thing; 
and a comfortable chair and large 
waste-paper basket seduce one into 
reading and tearing up all the let¬ 
ters one has put off reading and 
tearing up for a week. The well 
appointed desk with plenty of el¬ 
bow room invites long delayed an¬ 
swers, and perhaps they will be 
pleasanter answers for being writ¬ 
ten in such charming surroundings. 
One hopes that among the books 
on the shelf above one’s bowed 
head there may be a dictionary to 
help those to whom spelling has 
ever been a bar to composition. 
The desk, chair 
and waste-pa¬ 
per basket in 
this library are 
all Empire. The 
curtains are 
green and 
brown 
»*<**»<< 
IBftxll 
Rose hangings 
and rose bro¬ 
cade on the 
chair, an Em¬ 
pire table and 
table-service 
make this room 
charming 
