第48章

I was saying that nothing had been so slow in its progress in the world as domestic architecture.Temples, palaces, bridges, aqueducts, cathedrals, towers of marvelous delicacy and strength, grew to perfection while the common people lived in hovels, and the richest lodged in the most gloomy and contracted quarters.The dwelling-house is a modern institution.It is a curious fact that it has only improved with the social elevation of women.Men were never more brilliant in arms and letters than in the age of Elizabeth, and yet they had no homes.They made themselves thick-walled castles, with slits in the masonry for windows, for defense, and magnificent banquet-halls for pleasure; the stone rooms into which they crawled for the night were often little better than dog-kennels.The Pompeians had no comfortable night-quarters.The most singular thing to me, however, is that, especially interested as woman is in the house, she has never done anything for architecture.And yet woman is reputed to be an ingenious creature.

HERBERT.I doubt if woman has real ingenuity; she has great adaptability.I don't say that she will do the same thing twice alike, like a Chinaman, but she is most cunning in suiting herself to circumstances.

THE FIRE-TENDER.Oh, if you speak of constructive, creative ingenuity, perhaps not; but in the higher ranges of achievement--that of accomplishing any purpose dear to her heart, for instance--her ingenuity is simply incomprehensible to me.

HERBERT.Yes, if you mean doing things by indirection.

THE MISTRESS.When you men assume all the direction, what else is left to us?

THE FIRE-TENDER.Did you ever see a woman refurnish a house?

THE YOUNG LADY STAYING WITH US.I never saw a man do it, unless he was burned out of his rookery.

HERBERT.There is no comfort in new things.

THE FIRE-TENDER (not noticing the interruption).Having set her mind on a total revolution of the house, she buys one new thing, not too obtrusive, nor much out of harmony with the old.The husband scarcely notices it, least of all does he suspect the revolution, which she already has accomplished.Next, some article that does look a little shabby beside the new piece of furniture is sent to the garret, and its place is supplied by something that will match in color and effect.Even the man can see that it ought to match, and so the process goes on, it may be for years, it may be forever, until nothing of the old is left, and the house is transformed as it was predetermined in the woman's mind.I doubt if the man ever understands how or when it was done; his wife certainly never says anything about the refurnishing, but quietly goes on to new conquests.

THE MISTRESS.And is n't it better to buy little by little, enjoying every new object as you get it, and assimilating each article to your household life, and making the home a harmonious expression of your own taste, rather than to order things in sets, and turn your house, for the time being, into a furniture ware-room?

THE FIRE-TENDER.Oh, I only spoke of the ingenuity of it.

THE YOUNG LADY.For my part, I never can get acquainted with more than one piece of furniture at a time.

HERBERT.I suppose women are our superiors in artistic taste, and Ifancy that I can tell whether a house is furnished by a woman or a man; of course, I mean the few houses that appear to be the result of individual taste and refinement,--most of them look as if they had been furnished on contract by the upholsterer.

THE MISTRESS.Woman's province in this world is putting things to rights.

HERBERT.With a vengeance, sometimes.In the study, for example.

My chief objection to woman is that she has no respect for the newspaper, or the printed page, as such.She is Siva, the destroyer.

I have noticed that a great part of a married man's time at home is spent in trying to find the things he has put on his study-table.