ooke was now enthroned as the light of the prairie, and
day after day for three weeks, Esther labored over the portrait with as
much perseverance as though Hazard were right in promising that it
should make her immortal. The last days of November and the first of
December are the best in the year for work, and Esther worked with an
energy that surprised her. She wanted to extort praise from Mr. Wharton,
and even felt a slight shade of responsibility towards Mr. Hazard. At
first no one was to be admitted to see it while in progress; then an
exception was made for Strong and Hazard who came to the house one
evening, and in a moment of expansiveness were told that they would be
admitted to the studio. They came, and Esther found Mr. Hazard's
suggestions so useful that she could not again shut him out. In return
she was shamed into going to church with her aunt the following Sunday,
where she heard Mr. Hazard preach again. She did not enjoy it, and did
not think it necessary to repeat the compliment. "One should not know
clergymen," she said in excuse to her father for not liking the sermon;
"there is no harm in knowing an actress or opera-singer, but religion is
a serious thing." Mr. Hazard did not know how mere a piece of civility
her attendance was; he saw only that she was present, that his audience
was larger and his success more assured than ever. With this he was well
satisfied, and, as he had been used in life always to have his own way,
he took it for granted that in this instance he had got it.

The portrait of course did not satisfy Esther. Do what she would,
Catherine's features and complexion defied modeling and made the
artificial colors seem hard and coarse. The best she could paint was not
far from down-right failure. She felt the danger and called Mr. Hazard
to her aid. Hazard suggested alterations, and insisted much on what he
was pleased to call "values," which were not the values Esther had
given. With his help the picture became respectable, as pictures go,
although it would not have been with impunity that Tintoret himself had
tried to paint the soul of the prairie.

Esther, like most women, was timid, and wanted to be told when she could
be bold with perfect safety, while Hazard's grasp of all subjects,
though feminine in appearance, was masculine and persistent in reality.
To be steadily strong was not in Esther's nature. She was audacious only
by starts, and recoiled from her own audacity. Before lo