without seeing the housemaid to explain their wishes, and even if they have the opportunity, they feel a delicacy in giving orders as to how their fire should be lighted, or their bed-room comfortably arranged, yet much silent annoyance, particularly to the invalid, has been occasioned by a careless housemaid. A few words may be added here as to carrying fire from room to room in an open pan, and also on leaving the poker in the fire with a view to make it burn up more quickly; both practices are attended with danger; sparks may be blown about by the current of air through which the bearer passes in carrying fire from room to room, and houses have been burned down, and lives lost, by this practice. Leaving the poker in the fire is also attended with much danger, for as the coals which kept it firm at first, burn away, the poker gets loose and falls out, burning the rug through to the floor, and, if not discovered in time, setting fire to the floor itself. To return, however, to the drawing-room again, after this somewhat long digression. The grate having been cleaned, and the fire lighted, the carpet should now be swept; this does not require to be done every day, except round the table where the family may have been working, and at the door, or in any other corners of the room most in use; and this may be done with a soft hand-brush, making use of the dust-pan to carry away the dust, or any shreds of paper, as you sweep. Using a carpet-brush every day wears the carpet. Every article in the room should now be dusted, the ledges round the walls, the window-frames, the mantelpiece, the backs of the sofas and chairs, shaking the dust, from time to time, over the window while doing it; also the writing-desks, work-boxes, and books, on the different tables, should each be taken up and dusted separately; a duster is preferable to a dusting-brush for all this, as it removes the dust from the article entirely, instead of only scattering it to alight somewhere else; but for the gilt frames of mirrors or pictures, a soft feather-brush should be used. The covers of the sofas and chairs should next be stretched free from creases, and wiped with a perfectly clean duster, not that which has been in use for dusting the furniture. A little management is required in this, as in all other well-regulated arrangements: the duster used for wiping the chair-covers the one day should be laid aside, and kept for dusting the furniture on the next, so that each day a clean duster is made use of for the cushions of the chairs and sofas; from this not being attended to, they are often more _dirtied_ in being _cleaned_ than if they had been left with the dust upon them; with careful management the drawing-room chintz will look long well, even in London. The chair-covers should be stretched very tight over the cushions; if put on loosely they will get into creases, and look soiled in half the time; the cushions on the sofas should also be well shaken up.