It lacked colour, however, for the various dyes given to it during its brief period of favouritism were not colour; they were merely _tint_.
That strong, good word, colour, could not be applied to the mixed and evanescent dyes with which this soft and estimable material clothed itself withal.

It was, so to speak, invertebrate--it had no backbone.
Besides this lack of colour stanchness, it had another fault which helped to overbalance its many virtues.

It was fatally attractive to fire.

Its soft, fluffy surface seemed to reach out toward flame, and the contact once made, there ensued one flash of instantaneous blaze, and the whole surface, no matter if it were a table-cover, a hanging, or the wall covering a room, was totally destroyed.

Yet as one must have had or heard of such a disastrous experience to fear and avoid it, this proclivity alone would not have ended its popularity.