re at the lowest ebb just now--"

"Oh, the world is wrong!" interrupted the consul. "Those London papers
are all in the pay of the rebels."

"I mean that we have no sort of sympathy in Europe; and yet here you
are, embodying in your conception of 'Westward' the arrogant faith of
the days when our destiny seemed universal union and universal dominion.
There is something sublime to me in your treatment of such a work at
such a time. I think an Italian, for instance, if his country were
involved in a life and death struggle like this of ours, would have
expressed something of the anxiety and apprehension of the time in it;
but this conception of yours is as serenely undisturbed by the facts of
the war as if secession had taken place in another planet. There is
something Greek in that repose of feeling, triumphant over circumstance.
It is like the calm beauty which makes you forget the anguish of the
Laocooen."

"Is that so, Professor?" said Hoskins, blushing modestly, as an artist
often must in these days of creative criticism. He seemed to reflect
awhile before he added, "Well, I reckon you're partly right. If we ever
did go to smash, it would take us a whole generation to find it out. We
have all been raised to put so much dependence on Uncle Sam, that if the
old gentleman really did pass in his checks we should only think he was
lying low for a new deal. I never happened to think it out before, but
I'm pretty sure it's so."

"Your work wouldn't be worth half so much to me if you had 'thought it
out,'" said Elmore. "It's the unconsciousness of the faith that makes
its chief value, as I said before; and there is another thing about it
that interests and pleases me still more."

"What's that?" asked the sculptor.

"The instinctive way in which you have given the figure an entirely
American quality. There was something very familiar to me in it, the
first time you showed it, but I've only just been able to formulate my
impression: I see now that while the spirit of your conception is Greek,
you have given it, as you ought, the purest American expression. Your
'Westward' is no Hellenic goddess: she is a vivid and self-reliant
American girl."

At these words, Hoskins reddened deeply, and seemed not to know where to
look. Mrs. Elmore had the effect of escaping through the door into her
own room, and Miss Mayhew ran out upon the balcony. Hoskins followed
each in turn with a queer glance, and sat a moment in silence. The