tted in his nature?
Wonderfully poignant and painful things are these little appeals to an
inner consciousness. How far such sentiments were distributed amongst
those who now lounged and stared through _salon_ and gallery, we must
leave to the reader's own appreciation. They looked pleased, convinced,
and astonished, and, be it confessed, "bored" in turn; they were called
upon to admire much they did not care for, and wonder at many things
which did not astonish them; they were often referred to histories
which they had forgotten, if they ever knew them, and to names of whose
celebrity they were ignorant; and it was with a most honest sense of
relief they saw themselves reach the last room of the suite, where a
few cabinet pictures and some rare carvings in ivory alone claimed their
attention.

"A 'Virgin and Child,' by Murillo," said the guide.

"The ninth 'Virgin and Child,' by all that's holy!" said Mr. O'Shea.
"The ninth we have seen to-day!"

"The blue drapery, ladies and gentlemen," continued the inexorable
describer, "is particularly noticed. It is 'glazed' in a manner only
known to Murillo."

"I 'm glad of it, and I hope the secret died with him," cried Mr.
Morgan. "It looks for all the world like a bathing-dress."

"The child squints. Don't he squint?" exclaimed Mosely.

"Oh, for shame!" cried Mrs. Morris. "Mr. Layton is quite shocked with
your profane criticism."

"I did not hear it, I assure you," said that gentleman, as he arose from
a long and close contemplation of a "St. John," by Salvator.

"'St. John preaching in the Wilderness!'" said Quack-inboss; "too tame
for my taste. He don't seem to roll up his sleeves to the work,--does
he?"

"It's not stump-oratory, surely?" said Layton, with a quiet smile.

"Ain't it, though! Well, stranger, I'm in a considerable unmixed error
if it is not! You'd like to maintain that because a man does n't rise up
from a velvet cushion and lay his hand upon a grand railing, all carved
with grotesque intricacies, all his sentiments must needs be commonplace
and vulgar; but I 'm here to tell you, sir, that you 'd hear grander
things, nobler things, and greater things from a moss-covered old
tree-stump in a western pine-forest, by the mouth of a plain, hardy son
of hard toil, than you've often listened to in what you call your place
in Parliament Now, that's a fact!"

There was that amount of energy in the way these words were uttered
that seemed to say, if carried