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192
The House in Good Taste
·
Elsie De Wolfe
27
In
any
house
that
I
have
anything
to
do
with,
there
is
some
sort
of
desk
or
table
for
writing
in
the
hall.
How
often
I
have
been
in
other
people's
houses
when
it
was
necessary
to
send
a
message,
or
to
record
an
address,
when
the
whole
household
began
scurrying
around
trying
to
find
a
pencil
and
paper!
This,
to
my
mind,
is
an
outward
and
visible
sign
of
an
inward--and
fundamental!--lack
of
order.
In
this
hall
there
is
a
charming
desk
particularly
adapted
to
its
place.
It
is
a
standing
desk
which
can
be
lowered
or
heightened
at
will,
so
that
one
who
wishes
to
scribble
a
line
or
so
may
use
it
without
sitting
down.
This
desk
is
called
a
bureau
d'architect.
I
found
it
in
Biarritz.
It
would
be
quite
easy
to
have
one
made
by
a
good
cabinet-maker,
for
the
lines
and
method
of
construction
are
simple.
My
hall
desk
is
so
placed
that
it
is
lighted
by
the
window
by
day
and
the
wall
lights
by
night,
but
it
might
be
lighted
by
two
tall
candlesticks
if
a
wall
light
were
not
available.
There
is
a
shallow
drawer
which
contains
surplus
writing
materials,
but
the
only
things
permitted
on
the
writing
surface
of
the
desk
are
the
tray
for
cards,
the
pad
and
pencils.
The
only
other
furniture
in
the
hall
is
an
old
porter's
chair
near
the
door,
a
chair
that
suggests
the
sedan
of
old
France,
but
serves
its
purpose
admirably.
A
glass
door
leads
to
the
inner
hall
and
the
stairway,
which
I
consider
the
best
thing
in
the
house.
Instead
of
the
usual
steep
and
gloomy
stairs
with
which
we
are
all
familiar,
here
is
a
graceful
spiral
stairway
which
runs
from
this
floor
to
the
roof.
The
stair
hall
has
two
walls
made
up
of
mirrors
in
the
French
fashion,
that
is,
cut
in
squares
and
held
in
place
by
small
rosettes
of
gilt,
and
these
mirrored
walls
seemingly
double
the
spaciousness
of
what
would
be,
under
ordinary
conditions,
a
gloomy
inside
hallway.
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