It was the painting called "The Frugal Meal." "I like it," she said, "and also your Bastien Le-Page," referring to "The Forge." "But I think your old masters are much more interesting.
If you get many more you ought to put them together in a room.

Don't you think so?
I don't care for your Gerome very much." She had a cute drawl which he considered infinitely alluring.
"Why not ?" asked Cowperwood.
"Oh, it's rather artificial; don't you think so?
I like the color, but the women's bodies are too perfect, I should say.

It's very pretty, though." He had little faith in the ability of women aside from their value as objects of art; and yet now and then, as in this instance, they revealed a sweet insight which sharpened his own.

Aileen, he reflected, would not be capable of making a remark such as this.

She was not as beautiful now as this woman--not as alluringly simple, naive, delicious, nor yet as wise.