"We're almost beginners in this branch of industry," she expounded, as
she stood beside Jane in the centre of the room under the coldly
diffused glare of the skylight. "In my young days it was all Bierstadt
and De Haas; there wasn't supposed to be anything beyond. But as soon
as I began to hear about the Millet and the Barbizon crowd, I saw
there was. Well, I set to work, as usual. I studied and learned. I
_want_ to learn. I want to move; I want to keep right up with the
times and the people. I got books and photographs, and I went to all
the galleries. I read the artists' biographies and took in all the
loan collections. Now I'm loaning, too. Some of these things are going
to the Art Institute next week--that Daubigny, for one. It's little,
but it's good: there couldn't be anything more like him, could there?

"We haven't got any Millet yet, but that morning thing over there is a
Corot--at least we think so. I was going to ask one of the French
commissioners about it last summer, but my nerve gave out at the last
minute. Mr. Bates bought it on his own responsibility. I let him go
ahead; for after all, people of our position would naturally be
expected to have a Corot. I don't care to tell you what he paid for
it."...

"There's some more high art," said Mrs. Bates, with a wave of her hand
towards the opposite wall. "Carolus Duran; fifty thousand francs; and
he wouldn't let me pick out my own costume either....

"And now," she said, "let's go up-stairs." Jane followed her, too
dazed to speak or even to smile.

Mrs. Bates hastened forward light-footedly. "Conservatory--_that's_
Moorish," she indicated casually; "nothing in it but orchids and
things. Come along." Jane followed--dumbly, humbly.

Mrs. Bates paused on the lower step of her great stairway. A huge vase
of Japanese bronze flanked either newel, and a Turkish lantern
depended above her head. The bright green of a dwarf palm peeped over
the balustrade, and a tempered light strained down through the painted
window on the landing-stage.

"There!" she said, "you've seen it all." She stood there in a kind of
impassioned splendor, her jeweled fingers shut tightly, and her fists
thrown out and apart so as to show the veins and cords of her wrists.
"_We_ did it, we two--just Granger and I. Nothing but our own hands
and hearts and hopes, and each other. We have fought the fight--a fair
field and no favor--and we have come out ahead. And we shall stay
there too; k