Calvin. He was by no means fond of the man, however, and to his dislike
his envy of Calvin's reputation, socially and aesthetically, added
venom. He hastened now, with quite unnecessary vigor, to defend himself
from the mildly implied attack.
"I suppose we have got to give an order--or a commission, if the word
suits you better--of some sort; and whatever it is to be it needs to be
defined."
His manner was so evidently belligerent that Mr. Hubbard hastened to
interpose.
"That is pretty well defined for us, isn't it?" he said. "We were
directed to give a commission for a single figure representing America,
to be executed in bronze and not to exceed a fixed sum in cost. That
does not leave much latitude, so far as I can see, beyond the right of
selecting or rejecting models shown us. For my own part, I may as well
say at once, I am in favor of giving Mr. Herman whatever terms he wants
to make a model, and trusting everything to him. Of course we should
still have the right to veto the arrangement if the figure he made
should not prove satisfactory."
Mr. Hubbard spoke with a certain elegant deliberation and precision
which Irons supposed himself to regard as affected, while secretly he
thoroughly envied it.
"Oh, we all know what Herman would do," Irons retorted. "He'd make one
of those things that nobody could understand, and then say it was
artistic.
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