[Some Short Stories by Henry James]@TWC D-Link bookSome Short Stories CHAPTER I 2/11
In this way their embarrassment served their cause.
I had seen people painfully reluctant to mention that they desired anything so gross as to be represented on canvas; but the scruples of my new friends appeared almost insurmountable.
Yet the gentleman might have said "I should like a portrait of my wife," and the lady might have said "I should like a portrait of my husband." Perhaps they weren't husband and wife--this naturally would make the matter more delicate.
Perhaps they wished to be done together--in which case they ought to have brought a third person to break the news. "We come from Mr.Rivet," the lady finally said with a dim smile that had the effect of a moist sponge passed over a "sunk" piece of painting, as well as of a vague allusion to vanished beauty.
She was as tall and straight, in her degree, as her companion, and with ten years less to carry.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|