shine like a sheet of hot-pressed paper, so that, for the present,
and without the expenditure of abundant time and trouble, this kind
of ceiling decoration is not to be hoped for.

It may be suggested that we should paper our ceilings like our
walls, but I can't think that it will do. Theoretically, a paper-
hanging is so much distemper colour applied to a surface by being
printed on paper instead of being painted on plaster by the hand;
but practically, we never forget that it is paper, and a room
papered all over would be like a box to live in. Besides, the
covering a room all over with cheap recurring patterns in an
uninteresting material, is but a poor way out of our difficulty, and
one which we should soon tire of.

There remains, then, nothing but to paint our ceilings cautiously
and with as much refinement as we can, when we can afford it:
though even that simple matter is complicated by the hideousness of
the aforesaid plaster ornaments and cornices, which are so very bad
that you must ignore them by leaving them unpainted, though even
this neglect, while you paint the flat of the ceiling, makes them in
a way part of the decoration, and so is apt to beat you out of every
scheme of colour conceivable. Still, I see nothing for it but
cautious painting, or leaving the blank white space alone, to be
forgotten if possible. This painting, of course, assumes that you
know better than to use gas in your rooms, which will indeed soon
reduce all your decorations to a pretty general average.

So now we come to the walls of our room, the part which chiefly
concerns us, since no one will admit the possibility of leaving them
quite alone. And the first question is, how shall we space them out