The names of the three graces, and diverse artists' conceptions of the 
ladies themselves, were chiseled, painted, and sculpted freely about the 
interior and exterior of Miss Matheson's Academy. Nell could hardly look 
anywhere without seeing one of them prancing across a field of wildflowers, 
distributing laurel wreaths to the worthy, jointly thrusting a torch toward 
heaven, or shedding lambent effulgence upon the receptive pupils.