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I. The Rooms for Company.

HE Parlor. The apartment where guests are received may be one of the parlors, the reception-room, or the library, supposing the house to be large enough to contain all these. In England a distinction is made between the parlor and the drawing-room. In city houses, the parlor (from parloir, a place to speak in) is on the ground floor, and used as a reception-room and place to transact business, while the drawing-room (or withdrawing-room, as it was formerly called) is on the first floor, up one flight of stairs, and used more ceremoniously. In the United States we use the two words with the same meaning, as our houses have no such division. In large houses there are often two or more parlors, and the mistress of the establishment has, on the bed-room floor, what is called her boudoir, a private parlor for the reception of intimate, and, usually, female friends; as the study is, for men who have no office, the private room of the master of the house.