The Beldonald Holbein

by Henry James

Mrs. Munden had not yet been to my studio on so good a pretext as when she first intimated that it would be quite open to me - should I only care, as she called it, to throw the handkerchief - to paint her beautiful sister-in- law. I needn't go here more than is essential into the question of Mrs. Munden, who would really, by the way, be a story in herself. She has a manner of her own of putting things, and some of those she has put to me - ! Her implication was that Lady Beldonald hadn't only seen and admired certain examples of my work, but had literally been prepossessed in favour of the painter's "personality.