hollow ribs and criminals being boiled in caldrons, and having their
heads cut off and arrows shot into them!... I guess you're right; we'd
better move on to something more cheerful."

Miss Madison was never guilty of the foolishness that fell from Mrs.
Hawthorne's gross and unconcerned ignorance. Miss Madison took modesty
and tact with her, as well as keenness of eye, when she went to
picture-galleries and museums. But this, strange to say, did not make
her the more acceptable companion of the two to their guide. What Miss
Madison did never seemed so important as what her larger, weightier
friend did. The one personality to a singular extent eclipsed the other,
who was accustomed to this to the point of not feeling it. A laughing
lack of conceit in both women marvelously simplified their relation.

Gerald, in choosing pictures for their enjoyment, avoided with a
conscientiousness of very special brand to halt with them before
paintings fit to please their unpracticed eyes but which he did not
think worthy of admiration. He likewise passed Venuses, Eves, Truths,
all nudities, without remark or pause, acquainted of old with the
simple-minded prudery of certain Americans, and not disrespectful to it.

"Mrs. Hawthorne," he said, "to be ignorant is no sin. One may have been
doing beautiful, gracious, useful and merciful things while others were
cultivating the arts and sciences. But ignorance on any subject is not
in itself beautiful or desirable. One should therefore not be complacent
in it, proud of it. With a little humility, Mrs. Hawthorne, what can one
not hope to accomplish? Now, please, Mrs. Hawthorne, drop all
preconception, and use your eyes. Look at that angel."

"Do you mean to tell me I could live long enough to think that angel
beautiful? With those Chinese eyes?... Give it up, my friend, why do you
want to bother?"

"Because, Mrs. Hawthorne, you have essentially a good brain. You are at
the back of all a very intelligent woman--"

"Go 'way with you! You know that if you feed me taffy enough you can
make me see and say anything you want."

"--a very intelligent woman. And I am so constituted that I simply
cannot go on living in the same world with a really intelligent
woman--my friend, besides--who does not see the difference between
Raphael and Guido Reni, and likes one exactly as well as the other. I
ache to change it!"

"Go ahead. We don't want you to die. But I'm afraid it'll take surgery.
You'll