* * * * *
A little later during this visit a foreign artist called and was pleasantly received. Admiring a small painting, the visitor said:
"Now, that is one of your good ones."
"Don't look at it, dear boy," replied Whistler, airily; "it's not finished."
"Finished!" said the visitor. "Why, it's the most carefully finished picture of yours I've seen."
"Don't look at it," insisted Whistler. "You are doing an injustice to yourself, you are doing an injustice to the picture, and you're doing an injustice to me!"
Then, theatrically:
"Stop! I'll finish it now." With that he picked a very small brush, anointed, its delicate point with paint, and touched the picture in one spot with a speck of pigment.
"Now it's finished!" he exclaimed. "Now you may look at it."
Forgetting his umbrella, the foreign gentleman called at the studio the next day to get it. Whistler was out, but the visitor was much moved to find the "finishing touch" had been carefully wiped off!