my own country has marble mountains,
probably as fine in quality, I shall steadfastly believe that future
sculptors will revive this noblest of the beautiful arts, and people the
world with new shapes of delicate grace and massive grandeur. Perhaps,"
he added, smiling, "mankind will consent to wear a more manageable
costume; or, at worst, we sculptors shall get the skill to make
broadcloth transparent, and render a majestic human character visible
through the coats and trousers of the present day."

"Be it so!" said Miriam; "you are past my counsel. Show me the veiled
figure, which, I am afraid, I have criticised beforehand. To make
amends, I am in the mood to praise it now."

But, as Kenyon was about to take the cloth off the clay model, she laid
her hand on his arm.

"Tell me first what is the subject," said she, "for I have sometimes
incurred great displeasure from members of your brotherhood by being
too obtuse to puzzle out the purport of their productions. It is so
difficult, you know, to compress and define a character or story,
and make it patent at a glance, within the narrow scope attainable
by sculpture! Indeed, I fancy it is still the ordinary habit with
sculptors, first to finish their group of statuary,--in such development
as the particular block of marble will allow,--and then to choose the
subject; as John of Bologna did with his Rape of the Sabines. Have you
followed that good example?"

"No; my statue is intended for Cleopatra," replied Kenyon, a little
disturbed by Miriam's raillery. "The special epoch of her history you
must make out for yourself."

He drew away the cloth that had served to keep the moisture of the clay
model from being exhaled. The sitting figure of a woman was seen. She
was draped from head to foot in a costume minutely and scrupulously
studied from that of ancient Egypt, as revealed by the strange sculpture
of that country, its coins, drawings, painted mummy-cases, and whatever
other tokens have been dug out of its pyramids, graves, and catacombs.
Even the stiff Egyptian head-dress was adhered to, but had been softened
into a rich feminine adornment, without losing a particle of its
truth. Difficulties that might well have seemed insurmountable had been
courageously encountered and made flexible to purposes of grace and
dignity; so that Cleopatra sat attired in a garb proper to her historic
and queenly state, as a daughter of the Ptolemies, and yet such as
the beautiful wo