The sideboard is an arrangement of fixed shelves, but covered with a beautiful collection of blue china, which serves to furnish the table as well.

If the dining-room had a northern exposure, and it was desirable to use red instead of blue for colouring, as good an effect could be secured by depending for ornament upon the red Kaga porcelain so common at present in Japanese and Chinese shops, and using with it the Eastern cotton known as _bez_.

This is dyed with madder, and exactly repeats the red of the porcelain, while it is extremely durable both in colour and texture.

Borders of yellow stitchery, or straggling fringes of silk and beads, add very much to the effect of the drapery and to the character of the room.
[Illustration: DINING-ROOM IN "STAR ROCK" (COUNTRY HOUSE OF W.E.

CONNOR, ESQ., ONTEORA)] A library in ordinary family life has two parts to play.