“Very well!” said Catherine.  “If Mr. Wharton will consent, I have no objection.”

Wharton took it with his usual seriousness.  “I believe you are right,” said he sadly.  “I feel more and more that our work is thrown away.  If Hazard and the committee will consent, Miss Dudley shall paint what she likes for all me.”

No one dared carry die joke so far as to ask Mr. Hazard’s consent to canonize this American saint, and Strong after finishing his sketch, and labelling it:  “Sta.  Catarina 10-Lineata (Colorado),” gave it to Catherine as a companion to Wharton’s.  For some time she was called the beetle.  Wharton’s conscience seemed to smite him for his rudeness, and Catherine was promoted to the position of favorite.  While Esther toiled over the tiresome draperies of her picture, Catherine would wander off with Wharton on his tours of inspection; she listened to all the discussions, and picked up the meaning of his orders and criticisms; in a short time she began to maintain opinions of her own.  Wharton liked to have her near him, and came to get her when she failed to appear at his rounds.  They became confidential and sympathetic.

“Are you never homesick for your prairie?” he asked one day.

“Not a bit!” she answered.  “I like the East.  What is the use of having a world to one’s self?”

“What is the use of any thing?” asked Wharton.

“I give it up,” she replied.  “Does art say that a woman is no use?”

“I know of nothing useful in life,” said he, “except what is beautiful or creates beauty.  You are beautiful, and ought to be most so on your prairie.”

“Am I really beautiful?” asked Catherine with much animation.  “No one ever told me so before.”

This was coquetry.  The young person had often heard of the fact, and, even had she not, her glass told her of it several times a day.  She meant only that this was the first time the fact came home to her as a new and exquisite sensation.

“You have the charm of the Colorado hills, and plains,” said he.  “But you won’t keep it here.  You will become self-conscious, and self-consciousness is worse than ugliness.”

“Nonsense!” said Catherine boldly.  “I know more art than you, if that is your notion.  Do you suppose girls are so savage in Denver as not to know when they are pretty?  Why, the birds are self-conscious!  So are horses!  So are antelopes!  I have seen them often showing off their beauties like New York women, and they are never so pretty as then.”

“Don’t try it,” said he.  “If you do, I shall warn you.  Tell me, do you think my figure of St. Paul here self-conscious?  I lie awake nights for fear I have made him so.”

Catherine looked long at the figure and then shook her head.  “I could tell you if it were a woman,” she said.  “All women are more or less alike; but men are quite different, and even the silly ones may have brains somewhere.  How can I tell?”