or the main obstructions to understanding are profundity and
shallowness, and the latter is far the more perplexing of the two.

"I should like to see it on first," said Mary: she was in doubt whether
the color--bright, to suggest the brightest of sunset-clouds--would
suit Hesper's complexion. Then, again, she had always associated the
name _Hesper_ with a later, a solemnly lovely period of twilight,
having little in common with the color so voluminous in the background.

Hesper had a good deal of appreciative faculty, and knew therefore when
she liked and when she did not like a thing; but she had very little
originative faculty--so little that, when anything was wrong, she could
do next to nothing to set it right. There was small originality in
taking a suggestion for her part from her name, and less in the idea,
following by concatenation, of adopting for her costume sunset colors
upon a flimsy material, which might more than hint at clouds. She had
herself, with the assistance of Sepia and Folter, made choice of the
particular pink; but, although it continued altogether delightful in
the eyes of her maid, it had, upon nearer and pro-longed acquaintance,
become doubtful in hers; and she now waited, with no little anxiety,
the judgment of Mary, who sat silently thinking.

"Have you nothing to say?" she asked, at length, impatiently.

"Please, ma'am," replied Mary, "I must think, if I am to be of any use.
I am doing my best, but you must let me be quiet."

Half annoyed, half pleased, Hesper was silent, and Mary went on
thinking. All was still, save for the slight noises Folter made, as,
like a machine, she went on heartlessly brushing her mistress's hair,
which kept emitting little crackles, as of dissatisfaction with her
handling. Mary would now take a good gaze at the lovely creature, now
abstract herself from the visible, and try to call up the vision of her
as the real Hesper, not a Hesper dressed up--a process which had in it
hope for the lady, but not much for the dress upon the bed. At last
Folter had done her part.

"I suppose you _must_ see it on!" said Hesper, and she rose up.

Folter jerked herself to the bed, took the dress, arranged it on her
arms, got up on a chair, dropped it over her mistress's head, got down,
and, having pulled it this way and that for a while, fastened it here,
undone it there, and fastened it again, several times, exclaimed, in a
tone whose confidence was meant to forestall the