loquence and earnestness he went the
next afternoon, according to his agreement, to Strong's rooms, knowing
that Miss Dudley was to be there, and determined to win her over. The
little family party which Strong had got together was intended more for
this purpose than for any other, and Strong, willing to do what he could
to smooth his friend's path, was glad to throw him in contact with
persons from whom he could expect something besides flattery. Strong
never conceived it possible that Hazard could influence them, but he
thought their influence likely to be serious upon Hazard. He underrated
his friend's force of character.

His eyes were soon opened. Catherine Brooke made her first appearance on
this occasion, and was greatly excited at the idea of knowing people as
intellectual as Mr. Hazard and Mr. Wharton. She thought them a sort of
princes, and was still ignorant that such princes were as tyrannical as
any in the Almanach de Gotha, and that those who submitted to them would
suffer slavery. Her innocent eagerness to submit was charming, and the
tyrants gloated over the fresh and radiant victim who was eager to be
their slave. They lured her on, by assumed gentleness, in the path of
bric-a-brac and sermons.

In her want of experience she appealed to Strong, who had not the air
of being their accomplice, but seemed to her a rather weak-minded ally
of her own. Strong had seated her by the window, and was teaching her to
admire his collections, while Wharton and Hazard were talking with the
rest of the party on the other side of the room.

"What kind of an artist is Mr. Wharton?" asked Catherine.

"A sort of superior house-painter," replied Strong. "He sometimes does
glazing."

"Nonsense!" said Catherine contemptuously. "I know all about him. Esther
has told me. I want to know how good an artist he is. What would they
think of him in Paris?"

"That would depend on whether they owned any of his pictures," persisted
Strong. "I think he might be worse. But then I have one of his
paintings, and am waiting to sell it when the market price gets well up.
Do you see it? The one over my desk in the corner. How do you like it?"

"Why does he make it so dark and dismal?" asked Catherine. "I can't make
it out."

"That is the charm," he replied. "I never could make it out myself;
let's ask him;" and he called across the room: "Wharton, will you
explain to Miss Brooke what your picture is about? She wants to know,
and you