"We spent the evening together and I was sorry for her." "But you don't know for certain that she married Wainscott." "Yes. Wainscott wrote me a letter," and after some searching in his pockets Harding found the letter. "'DEAR SIR,--Mr. and Mrs. Delaney have told me of your kindness to Lucy, and Lucy has told me of the trouble you took trying to get her an engagement, and I write to thank you. Lucy did not know at the time that I had become a partner in the firm of Sheldon & Flint, and she thought that she might go on the stage and make money by singing, for she has a pretty voice, to help me to buy a partnership in the business of Sheldon & Flint. It was a kind thought. Lucy's heart is in the right place, and it was kind of you, sir, to take her to different managers. She has given me an exact account of all you did for her. "'We are going to be married to-morrow, and next week we sail for the States. I live, sir, in Chicago City, and if you are ever in America Lucy and myself will esteem it an honour if you will come to see us. "'Lucy would write to you herself if she were not tired, having had to look after many things. "'I am, dear sir, "'Very sincerely yours, "'JAMES WAINSCOTT.'" "Lucy wanted life," said Rodney, "and she will find her adventure sooner or later. Poor Lucy!" "Lucy is the stuff the great women are made of and will make a noise in the world yet." "It is well she has gone; for it is many years since there was honour in Ireland for a Grania." "Maybe you'll meet her in Paris and will do another statue from her." "It wouldn't be the same thing. Ah! my statue, my poor statue. Nothing but a lump of clay. I nearly went out of my mind. At first I thought it was the priest who ordered it to be broken. But no, two little boys who heard a priest talking. They tell strange stories in Dublin about that statue. It appears that, after seeing it, Father McCabe went straight to Father Brennan, and the priests sat till midnight, sipping their punch and considering this fine point of theology--if a man may ask a woman to sit naked to him; and then if it would be justifiable to employ a naked woman for a statue of the Virgin. Father Brennan said, 'Nakedness is not a sin,' and Father McCabe said, 'Nakedness may not be in itself a sin, but it leads to sin, and is therefore unjustifiable.' At their third tumbler of punch they had reached Raphael, and at the fourth Father McCabe held that bad statues were more likely to excite devotional feelings than good ones, bad statues being further removed from perilous Nature." "I can see the two priests, I can hear them. If an exception be made in favour of the Virgin, would the sculptor be justified in employing a model to do a statue of a saint?" "No one supposes that Rubens did not employ a model for his descent from the Cross," said Rodney. "A man is different, that's what the priests would say."