le more
aggressive in your work?--if you weren't so afraid of being superficial
or sensational? You were intimating a few minutes ago," she added,
speaking rapidly under the stress of the message she burned to deliver,
"that I seemed changed. I don't believe I am changed. But, if I seem
different, it is because I feel so strongly that those who wish to
succeed must assert themselves and seize opportunities. There is where
it seems to me that Mr. Williams has the advantage over you, Wilbur. One
of the finest and most significant qualities of our people, you know, is
their enterprise and aggressiveness. Architecture isn't like the stock
business, but the same theory of progress must be applicable to both.
Don't you think I may be right, Wilbur? Don't you see what I mean?"

He stroked her hair and answered gently, "What is it that I am not doing
which you think I might do?"

Selma snuggled close to him, and put her hand in his. She was vibrating
with the proud consciousness of the duty vouchsafed to her to guide and
assist the man she loved. It was a blissful and a precious moment to
her. "If I were you," she said, solemnly, "I should build something
striking and original, something which would make everyone who beheld it
ask, 'what is the architect's name?' I would strike out boldly without
caring too much what the critics and the people of Europe would say. You
musn't be too afraid, Wilbur, of producing something American, and you
mustn't be too afraid of the American ways of doing things. We work more
quickly here in everything, and--and I still can't help feeling that you
potter a little. Necessarily I don't know about the details of your
business, but if I were you, instead of designing small buildings or
competing for colleges and churches, where more than half the time
someone else gets the award, I should make friends with the people who
live in those fine houses on Fifth Avenue, and get an order to design a
splendid residence for one of them. If you were to make a grand success
of that, as you surely would, your reputation would be made. You ask me
why I like to entertain and am willing to know people like that. It is
to help you to get clients and to come to the front professionally. Now
isn't that sensible and practical and right, too?"

Her voice rang triumphantly with the righteousness of her plea.

"Selma, dear, if I am not worldly-wise enough, I am glad to listen to
your suggestions. But art is not to be