It's evening now in Seacliff, San Francisco, and in the Barbour family home, dinner is over. Paul, after chatting with his parents for a few moments in the library, has gone up the stairs to his studio at the top of the house. He pauses on the second floor, at Clifford's open door, when he sees his brother staring moodily out of the window. He and Father Barbour have had a disagreement, and he's feeling low, so Paul invites him up to the studio to get it off his chest.