sure and bring our smelling-bottles. And pray have a few soft sofas
conveniently placed."

"Phidias and Praxiteles," Miss Blanchard remarked, "had the advantage
of believing in their goddesses. I insist on believing, for myself, that
the pagan mythology is not a fiction, and that Venus and Juno and Apollo
and Mercury used to come down in a cloud into this very city of Rome
where we sit talking nineteenth century English."

"Nineteenth century nonsense, my dear!" cried Madame Grandoni. "Mr.
Hudson may be a new Phidias, but Venus and Juno--that 's you and
I--arrived to-day in a very dirty cab; and were cheated by the driver,
too."

"But, my dear fellow," objected Gloriani, "you don't mean to say you
are going to make over in cold blood those poor old exploded Apollos and
Hebes."

"It won't matter what you call them," said Roderick. "They shall be
simply divine forms. They shall be Beauty; they shall be Wisdom; they
shall be Power; they shall be Genius; they shall be Daring. That 's all
the Greek divinities were."

"That 's rather abstract, you know," said Miss Blanchard.

"My dear fellow," cried Gloriani, "you 're delightfully young."

"I hope you 'll not grow any older," said Singleton, with a flush of
sympathy across his large white forehead. "You can do it if you try."