"Certainly. Is that the young man?—He looks like a genius."
"Rather as a genius should look; your great lions are often very tame-looking animals," observed Mr. Stryker.
"Hubbard's face only does him justice, however; he is full of talent," said Harry.
"I Some of his pictures are certainly very fine," observed Mrs. de Vaux.
"I never saw water like his," continued Hazlehurst; "such variety, and always true to nature. He almost persuades one to believe all he says about water: he maintains that it has more variety of expression than any other inanimate object, and has, withal, an independent character of its own; he says it is second only to the human countenance."
"He seems quite an enthusiast," said Mrs. de Vaux.
"Won't he take it all out in talk?" asked Mr. Stryker, drily.
"Look at his view of Hell-Gate on a cloudy evening, and say so if you can!" exclaimed Harry, warmly.
{"Hell-Gate" = a narrow channel in New York City's East River}
"Well, after all, he says no more for water, than has been said by the poets of all nature, from the time of the first pastoral; they tell us that the sun will make a bare old mountain smile, and the wind will throw the finest forest into a fuss."