"Yes."
"And know the value of pictures?"
"Oh, no!"
"At least you have your own ideas about values?"
"Certainly!"
"And you recommended the defendant to buy this picture for two hundred pounds?"
"I did."
"Mr. Whistler, it is reported that you received a goodly sum for this recommendation—is there anything in that?"
"Oh, nothing, I assure you [yawning]—nothing but the indelicacy of the suggestion."
The critics found much joy, several years ago, in tracing out the fact that Whistler spent a year at Madrid copying Velasquez. That he, like Sargent, has been benefited and inspired by the sublime art of the Spaniard there is no doubt, but there is nothing in the charge that he is an imitator of Velasquez, save the indelicacy of the suggestion.