The "keeping room" of our ancestors that was reserved for formal entertaining is not sufficiently in accord with our comfort-demanding age to be, like some of the furniture of its period, either restored or reproduced. Yet the readiness of that room to receive the outside world at all times scored one point in its favour and makes a modernised substitute desirable. A receiving, or reception room, is of advantage under any conditions, and, with young children or older persons in the family, is really necessary.

The situation of a room of this kind (in some homes called a parlour, in others a reception room) should be near the front door or vestibule, and if this is well managed by the architect or builder, a stranger entering the house will naturally turn towards the place where he is to be received, and not stray into the family rooms. When the room is not properly located in the beginning, some alteration of doorways should be made or the uses of the rooms changed. In one home the latter plan was adopted, making the library into a reception room and the parlour into a living room.

The privacy desirable for a reception room is often defeated by the modern fashion of archways in place of doors. When the former exist, thick hangings may be used that will shut out noise and interruptions. A second door from the reception room to another part of the house should be planned in building a house with a parlour.

The popular scheme at the present time is to furnish the parlour in what painters call a "high key," that is, white-and-gold, white-and-rose, or green-and-white. This is suitable in a home where there is much evening entertaining and where the parlour is used by guests without wraps, the decorations making a brilliant setting for evening costumes; but when the main office of the room (as in homes of moderate cost) is to receive callers in their outdoor garments, with the hostess in her ordinary house dress, quiet colours in the room are the better choice. With this granted, the woodwork may be a soft-toned medium brown, with a paper quietly decorative in design; or a two-toned paper may be chosen as a background for some interesting pictures. The windows may be hung with long ecru-coloured lace curtains, with over-curtains of warm-hued tones for the winter. The absolute needs of the room would be covered with the admission of two or three chairs, a small sofa and a table; but this limit may be extended as space and income permit.

In the selection of chairs for this room rockers and Morris chairs may be discarded, but comfortable armchairs of good construction provided. Some light side chairs with cane seats and mahogany frames are useful in this room, and the Sheraton models for sofa and chairs are essentially appropriate. Willow chairs, stained and fitted with pretty cushions on the seats and backs, may take the place of a more expensive upholstered variety.

There are tables innumerable to choose from, but many of them are badly designed, heavily ornate and poorly constructed. The old-fashioned round candle-stand is a model that has not lost its trim outlines with age, and the carved or pie-crust edge bestows a little touch of decoration that is not objectionable in the reception room.

A low taboret is useful for holding a foliage plant, and a teakwood stand with a square of marble set into the top is serviceable for holding a vase of cut flowers. If tea is to be brought in at any time, a turn-down or tip-table may be kept in reserve for the tray.

A small writing-desk or table supplied with stationery may also be a part of the equipment of the parlour, for the especial convenience of the caller or guest staying in the house.

The selections of pictures may be such as to arrest the attention and give pleasure by their interpretation of nature or life. Family portraits, amateur attempts at photography, ex-periments in drawing or painting, may each and all be excluded from the reception room.

Books of pictorial interest or short selections that may be enjoyed by callers who chance to be kept waiting are among the minor provisions for the parlour that give evidence of thought as well as of taste; and fresh flowers in pretty bowls or jars will give a more distinctive touch than mere furnishings, however valuable.

Bric-a-brac and other decorations may be chosen for the enjoyment of those who come into this room, and not be an expression of the individual tastes of the family. A clock of good design may stand upon the mantel with a plaster cast, candelabra, a Japanese vase and piece of pottery.