unadorned, or rather untarnished, by the gewgaws of
fashionable dressmaking and millinery. His first sight of Selma had made
him conscious that here was a face not unlike what he had hoped to
encounter some day, and he had instinctively felt her to be sympathetic.
He was even conscious of disappointment when he heard her addressed as
Mrs. Babcock. Evidently she was a free-born soul, unhampered by the
social weaknesses of a large city, and illumined by the spiritual grace
of native womanliness. So he thought of her, and Mrs. Taylor's diagnosis
rather confirmed than impaired his impression, for in Mrs. Taylor Wilbur
felt he discerned a trace of antagonism born of cosmopolitan
prejudice--an inability to value at its true worth a nature not moulded
on conventional lines. Rigorous as he was in his judgments, and eager to
disown what was cheap or shallow, mere conventionalism, whether in art
or daily life, was no less abhorrent to him. Here, he said to himself,
was an original soul, ignorant and unenlightened perhaps, but endowed
with swift perception and capable of noble development.

The appearance of Selma's scroll and glass bedizened house did not
affect this impression. Wilbur was first of all appreciatively an
American. That is he recognized that native energy had hitherto been
expended on the things of the spirit to the neglect of things material.
As an artist he was supremely interested in awakening and guiding the
national taste in respect to art, but at the same time he was thoroughly
aware that the peculiar vigor and independence of character which he
knew as Americanism was often utterly indifferent to, or ignorant of,
the value of aesthetics. After all, art was a secondary consideration,
whereas the inward vision which absorbed the attention of the thoughtful
among his countrymen and countrywomen was an absolute essential without
which the soul must lose its fineness. He himself was seeking to show
that beauty, in external material expression, was not merely consistent
with strong ideals but requisite to their fit presentment. He recognized
too that the various and variegated departures from the monotonous
homely pattern of the every-day American house, which were evident in
each live town, were but so many indicators that the nation was
beginning to realize the truth of this. His battle was with the
designers and builders who were guiding falsely and flamboyantly, not
with the deceived victims, nor with those wh