“This is very clever,” observed Hume. “It really deserves praise for a first attempt; but, remember, it is much easier to model in wax than to chisel a bust from marble.” The persevering girl was resolved to compel the satirist to the admission that a woman could do more than he had supposed. Without any announcement of her design, she supplied herself with marble and all the necessary implements of labor. It was not long before she had copied out in marble, roughly perhaps, but faithfully, the head she had modeled in wax. She placed it before the historian, who was actually surprised into admiration, though he found something still to criticise in the want of fine workmanship and delicate finish. His fault-finding probably went far to stimulate her to new exertions. From this time the impulse of genius was strong within her, and she was firmly resolved even to seclude herself from the brilliant society by which she was surrounded for the purpose of devoting her life to the pursuit she found so congenial to her taste. It could not long be concealed from the world of fashion that the admired Miss Conway had forsaken the mask and the dance, and was working, like any day-laborer, in wet clay; that she moved amid subdued lights; that her glossy hair was covered with a mob cap to keep out the white dust of the marble, while an unsightly apron preserved her silk gown and embroidered slippers; that her white and delicate fingers were often soiled with clay, or grasped the hammer and the chisel. The strange story ran like wild-fire among the circles of her acquaintance. Several titled ladies had wielded the pencil and the brush, but scarcely one could be remembered who had taken to sculpture. It may well be imagined that the spirited girl found pleasure in showing her independence, and that she was animated by a noble ambition to carve out for herself with the chisel a place among the honored among artists, worthy of a descendant of the Seymours and the Campbells. Works of genius seemed more than coronets to her; and noble actions, than Norman blood! She now took lessons in modeling and the elemental part of sculpture, from Cerrachi--the same conspirator who was brought to the guillotine for plotting against Napoleon--while she perfected herself in the practical part of working in marble in the studio of the elder Bacon, and studied anatomy with Cruikshanks. She produced a number of ideal heads and busts, and some figures of animals, executed with skill; but her progress was slow, and she produced no work of note till seven years after her marriage.