Perhaps you can find some middle way with Wharton."

"No! If I am to paint her at all, I must paint her as she is. There is
more that is angelic in her face now, if I could only catch it, than
there is in all Mr. Wharton's figures put together, and if I am to
commit sacrilege, I would rather be untrue to Mr. Wharton, than to her."

"I believe you are right, Miss Dudley. There _is_ a little look of
heaven in Miss Brooke's eyes. If you think you can put it into the St.
Cecilia, why not try? If the experiment fails you can try again on
another plan. After all, the drapery is the only part that needs to be
very strictly in keeping."

Thus this despotic clergyman gave way and irritated Wharton, who, having
promised to let him decide the dispute, was now suddenly overruled. He
shrugged his shoulders and told Esther in private that he had struggled
hard to get permission to do what she was doing, but only the sternest,
strongest types would satisfy the church then. "It was all I could do to
get them down to the thirteenth century," he said; "whenever I begged
for beauty of form, they asked me whether I wanted the place to look
like a theater."

"You know they're quite right," said Esther. "It has a terribly
grotesque air of theater even now."

"It _is_ a theater," growled Wharton. "That is what ails our religion.
But it is not the fault of our art, and if you had come here a little
earlier, I would have made one more attempt. I would like now, even as
it is, to go back to the age of beauty, and put a Madonna in the heart
of their church. The place has no heart."

"I never could have given you help enough for that, Mr. Wharton; but
what does it matter about my poor Cecilia? She does no harm up here. No
one can see her, and after all it is only her features that are modern!"

"No harm at all, but I wish I were a woman like you. Perhaps I could
have my own way."

Esther liked to have her own way. She had the instinct of power, but not
the love of responsibility, and now that she found herself allowed to
violate Wharton's orders and derange his plans, she became alarmed,
asked no more favors, stuck closely to her work, and kept Catherine
always at her side. She even tried to return on her steps and follow
Wharton's wishes, until she was stopped by Catherine's outcry. Then it
appeared that Wharton had gone over to her side. Instead of supporting
Esther in giving severity to the figure, he wanted it to be the closest
poss