reasonable, Miss Dudley! If Wharton is willing to teach, why not be
willing to learn? You are not to be the judge. If I think your work
good, have I not a right to call on you for it?"

"Oh, yes! You have a right to call, and I have a right to refuse. I will
paint no more religious subjects. I have not enough soul. My St. Cecilia
looks like a nursery governess playing a waltz for white-cravated saints
to dance by." There was a tone of real mortification in Esther's voice
as she looked once more at the figure on the wall, and felt how weak it
seemed by the side of Wharton's masculine work. Then she suddenly
changed her mind and did just what he asked: "If Mr. Wharton will
consent, I will begin again, and paint it all over."

A woman could easily have seen that she was torn in opposite directions
by motives of a very contrary kind, but Mr. Hazard did not speculate on
this subject; he was glad to carry his point, and let the matter rest
there. It was agreed that the next morning Wharton should decide upon
the proper course to be taken, and if he chose to reject her figure, she
should begin it again. Esther and Catherine went home, but Esther was
ill at ease. That her St. Cecilia did not come up to the level of her
ambition was a matter of course, and she was prepared for the
disappointment. Whose first attempt in a new style ever paired with its
conception? She felt that Mr. Hazard would think her wayward and weak.
She could not tell him the real reason of her perplexity. She would have
liked to work on patiently under Wharton's orders without a thought of
herself, but how could she do so when Hazard was day by day coming
nearer and nearer until already their hands almost touched. If she had
not liked him, the question could easily have been settled, but she did
like him, and when she said this to herself she turned scarlet at the
thought that he liked her, and--what should she do?

With a heavy heart she made up her mind that there was but one thing to
be done; she must retreat into her own house and bar the doors. If he
did not see that such an intimacy was sure to make trouble for him, she,
who felt, if she did not see, the gulf that separated them, must teach
him better.

Whether she would have held to this wise and prudent course against his
entreaties and Wharton's commands will never be known, for the question,
which at the moment seemed to her so hard to decide, was already
answered by fates which left her no vo