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Page 49
Jill hardly needed this parting admonition, but listened to it and to
much more good advice with the respect due to one who, for nearly half
a century, had looked well to the ways of her household, whose helping
hands were always outstretched to the poor and needy, whose children
rose up and called her blessed, and whose husband had never ceased to
praise her. After her departure her niece indulged in a short season of
solemn reflection, striving faithfully to attain to that wisdom which
always knows when to protest against existing circumstances and when to
accept them with equanimity. Ultimately she reached the conclusion
that, while the house that Jack built might indeed be a thoroughly
comfortable home to one who had a contented mind, it was really her
duty in her probationary housekeeping to be as critical as possible.
Among other things the doors came in for a share of her usually amiable
denunciation. She declared they were huge and heavy enough in
appearance for prison cells, yet so loosely put together that their
prolonged existence seemed to be a question of glue. They were swollen
in the damp, warm weather till they refused to _be_ shut, and would
doubtless shrink so much under the influence of furnace heat in the
winter that they would refuse to _stay_ shut. The closet doors swung
against the windows, excluding instead of admitting the light. The
doors of the chambers opened squarely upon the beds, and there seemed
to have been no thought of convenient wall spaces for pictures and
furniture.
[Illustration: OUTSIDE BARRIERS.]
The architect's theory of doors, as expounded in one of his letters,
was simple enough: "Outside doors are barricades; they should be solid
and strong in fact and in appearance. Inner doors, from room to room,
require no special strength; they should turn whichever way gives the
freest passage and throws them most out of the way when they are open.
Seclusion for the inmates is the chief service of chamber doors, and
they should be placed and hung so as _not_ to give a direct glimpse
across the bed or into the room the moment they are set even slightly
ajar. Closet doors are screens simply, and ought to hide the interior
of the closet when they are partially open, as well as when they are
closed. They may be as light as it is possible to make them. In many
houses one-half the doors might wisely be sent to the auction-room and
the proceeds invested in porti�res, which are often far more suitable
and convenient than solid doors, especially for chamber closets, for
dressing-rooms, or other apartments communicating in suites, and not
infrequently a heavy curtain is an ample barrier between the principal
rooms. It may be well to supplement them, with light sliding doors, to
be used in an emergency, but which being rarely seen, may be
exceedingly simple and inexpensive, having no resemblance to the rest
of the finish in the room. For that matter such conformity is not
required of any of the doors, though it is reckoned by builders as one
of the cardinal points in hard-wood finish that veneered doors must
'match' the finish of the rooms in which they show. This is absurd.
Doors are under no such obligations. They may be of any sort of wood,
metal or fabric. They may be veneered, carved, gilded, ebonized,
painted, stained or 'decorated.' To finish and furnish a room entirely
with one kind of wood, making the wainscot, architraves, cornices,
doors and mantels, the chairs, tables, piano, bookcase, or sideboard,
all of mahogany, oak, or whatever may be chosen--the floors, too,
perhaps, and the picture frames--is strictly orthodox and eminently
respectable; but like the invariable use of 'low tones' in decorating
walls and ceilings, it betrays a sort of helplessness and lack of
courage. Discords in sound, color and form are, indeed, always hateful,
and they are sure to be produced when ignorance or accident strikes the
keys. Yet, on the other hand, neutrality and monotone are desperately
tedious, and it is better to strive and fail than to be hopelessly
commonplace."
[Illustration: INSIDE BARRIERS.]
[Illustration: COMMON UGLINESS.]
[Illustration: SIMPLE GRACE.]
This advice concerned not the doors alone, but referred to other
queries that had been raised as to the interior finish generally.
One evening Jack came home and found Jill "in the dumps," or as near as
she ever came to that unhappy state of mind, the consequence, as it
appeared, of Aunt Melville's zeal in her behalf.
"Why should these plans worry you?" said Jack. "I thought common sense
was your armor and decision your shield against Aunt Melville's erratic
arrows of advice."
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