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.