"
"Damned nonsense!" blustered Irons, sitting up in his chair in
excitement over such an extraordinary proposition. "Don't we all go
into competitions whenever we send in sealed proposals? Beneath his
dignity! Great Scott! The cockiness of artists is enough to take away a
man's breath."
Mr. Hubbard, who was a lawyer chiefly occupied, as far as business
went, in managing his own large property and certain trust funds, and
Mr. Calvin, who had never in his life soiled his aristocratic hands
with any business whatever, smiled in the mutual consciousness that
"sealed proposals" were as much outside their experience as
competitions were foreign to that of Grant Herman. The thought, passing
and trivial as it was, moved their sympathy a little toward the
sculptor's view of the matter, although since secretly Mr. Calvin was
determined that the commission should be given to Orin Stanton, the
fact made little difference.
"You evidently don't want to undergo the general condemnation that has
fallen on whoever has had a share in the Boston statues thus far," Mr.
Calvin observed, glancing at Irons with a genial smile. "If you are
going to set yourself to hit the popular taste and keep yourself clear
of the claws of the critics at the same time, I fear you've a heavy
task laid out."
"The critics always pitch into everything," Irons responded with a
growl.
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