“Yes, madam, she can get half a dozen squaws to do her housework, so that she can have all her time to herself. I am going to arrange it so that she can shoot grizzly bears from the parlor window, if she wants to; and as for wardrobe!—well, I intend to buy all our clothes in New York, and they’ll be of a kind that’ll cause every woman on the old Pottawatomie Reservation to turn green with envy.”
“Pandora ought to appreciate your kindness,” said Mrs. M’Duffy; “but she is a strange girl, and, I fear, thinks more of her art than of the matters that commonly engage a young girl’s attention.”
“By the way, ma’am, how is the great picture coming on?”
“Slowly. Pandora made the handle of the hatchet more than twice as thick as the tree, and she had to alter it. A connoisseur, a friend of hers, also pointed out to her that in fore-shortening Washington’s right leg she had made his foot appear to be resting upon a mountain upon the other side of the river. Corrections of this kind require time.”
“She must hurry up, ma’am; she must hurry up,” said the General; “I have everything fixed to obtain the consent of Congress to its purchase by the Government. I am going to press the resolution as soon as I hear that she has accepted Smith.”
“You are too kind. Do you think it is likely to be favorably received? Mrs. Easby told me yesterday that Judge Cudderbury said that if George Washington could have foreseen Pandora’s picture he would have had incorporated into the Constitution of the United States a section making it a felony to represent him as within a thousand miles of a cherry-tree. But then the judge, you know, has a daughter who professes to be an artist.”
“Jealousy, ma’am! sheer jealousy. The judge knows no more about art, anyhow, than a Colorado mule knows about the sidereal system. Now, my opinion, Mrs. M’Duffy, is, that old Michael-what’s-his-name, over there in Rome, couldn’t hold a candle to your daughter in the matter of covering canvas.”
As the General was speaking, the door opened, and Pandora entered. She spoke politely, but coldly, to the visitors, and after the passage of a few remarks about the condition of the weather, the General withdrew, Mrs. M’Duffy followed him to the hall to bid him adieu, and Mr. Smith remained with Pandora.
It occurred to Achilles that if Mrs. M’Duffy should happen to fail to return this would be an uncommonly good opportunity to speak of the state of his feelings. The thought pleased him, but it gave him some embarrassment.
“Miss Pandora,” he said, “I am glad to hear that you are succeeding so nicely with your picture.”