unconscious of the
presence of a stranger, began a rattling, all-alive talk with Mr. Akers,
of which I caught enough to know that a ride over the Campagna was
planned, as I heard Mr. Akers say, 'Oh, I won't ride with you--I'm
afraid to!' after which he turned to me and introduced Harriet Hosmer.

"I was just from old conservative England, and I had been among its most
conservative people. I had caught something of its old musty-parchment
ideas, and the cricket-like manners of Harriet Hosmer rather troubled
me. It took some weeks for me to get over the impression of her madcap
ways; they seemed childish.

"I went to her studio and saw 'Puck,' a statue all fun and frolic, and I
imagined all was fun to the core of her heart.

"As a general rule, people disappoint you as you know them. To know them
better and better is to know more and more weaknesses. Harriet Hosmer
parades her weaknesses with the conscious power of one who knows her
strength, and who knows you will find her out if you are worthy of her
acquaintance. She makes poor jokes--she's a little rude--a good deal
eccentric; but she is always _true_.

"In the town where she used to live in Massachusetts they will tell you
a thousand anecdotes of her vagaries--but they are proud of her.

"She does not start on a false scent; she knows the royal character of
the game before she hunts.

"A lady who is a great rider said to me a few days since: 'Of course I
do not ride like Harriet Hosmer, but, if you will notice, there is
method in Harriet Hosmer's madness. She does not mount a horse until she
has examined him carefully.'

"At the time when I saw her, she was thinking of her statue of Zenobia.
She was studying the history of Palmyra, reading up on the manners and
customs of its people, and examining Eastern relics and costumes.

"If she heard that in the sacristy of a certain cathedral, hundreds of
miles away, were lying robes of Eastern queens, she mounted her horse
and rode to the spot, for the sake of learning the lesson they could
teach.

"Day after day alone in her studio, she studied the subject. Think what
knowledge of the country, of the history of the people, must be
gathered, must be moulded, to bring into the face and bearing of its
queen the expression of the race! Think what familiar acquaintance with
the human form, to represent a lifelike figure at all!

"For years after I came home I read the newspapers to see if I could
find any notice of t