too, that by locking one door on each story the servants' quarters can
be entirely detached from the rest of the house.'

"Yes," said Jill, laying down the letter; "and that suggests another
question: What do you think of a plan like this which provides no
passage from the kitchen to the front part of the house except across
the dining-room?"

[Illustration: SECOND FLOOR OF WILL'S MASTERPIECE.]

"I should refer the question back to the housekeepers themselves; it
is domestic rather than architectural. If the kitchen servant attends
to the door bell, and is constantly sailing back and forth between the
cooking-stove and the front door like a Fulton Ferry boat, the amount
of travel would justify a special highway--even a suspension bridge.
Likewise, when the side entrance for the boys and other careless
members of the family is behind the dining-room, that apartment will
become a noisy thoroughfare, unless there is a corridor passing around
it. This is a common dilemma in planning the average house, and while a
direct communication between the front and rear portions is always
desirable, crossing one of the principal rooms is often the least of
two evils. It seems to be so in this plan."

"Go on, Jill."

"There is but one more sentence about the plan: 'The outside of the
house is severely plain, but you can easily make it more ornamental.'"

"That's true. Nothing is easier than to make things ornamental. The
hard thing is to make them simply useful. Now if you want my candid