let in light and air, shut out the gaze of strangers, hold no shadows,
match interior and exterior, fit properly, work with ease, cost little,
and last forever. The ordinary opaque roller shade still has no
serious rival, and usually the best we can do is to see to it that we
get a good quality which is not always reliable, rather than a poor
quality, which never is.

The good old lace curtains that were the pride of the housekeeper's
heart and the jest of the masculine members of the household seem to
have had their day. It has been a long one, and any article that holds
sway for so lengthy a period must have had some merit. But the soft
chintz, linen, madras, or muslin is now the vogue, and there is much
good sense in the innovation. No lace curtain ever made could be both
artistic and serviceable; some persons go so far as to say that they
never were either, but we have too much reverence for tradition to be
so iconoclastic. However, they certainly were expensive if they were
good enough to have, were difficult to wash, and usually caused a dead
line to be drawn about the very choicest part of the room. Linen
curtains, costing from 50 cents to $1.25 a yard, may be had in a set or
conventional design or plain appliqué. Chintz and muslin cost less,
and some remarkably pretty effects in madras are obtainable. Curtains
now sensibly stop at the bottom of the window instead of dragging upon
the floor.

Besides shades and curtains the window question involves not only
light, ventilation, and artistic relations, but such details as screens
and storm windows. These latter matters come under the jurisdiction of
the architect and should not be carelessly settled upon. Each room has
its uses, to which the window must conform as nearly as may be, and
then the outward appearance of the house must not be forgotten. It is