"You do not love me any longer, then," said Lord Henry Wotton cheerlessly. An ugly sneer began at the edge of his mouth and crept up into his eyes.

Basil Hallward looked up from his drawing in surprise. There was charcoal on his nose, and red paint on his cheek. "Harry, do not be so – what? What did you say?"

"You see, you aren't even paying me that attention I deserve," his handsomely dressed friend snapped.

"I quite agree with you," Basil murmured, back to work.

"It wasn't important in any case."

"No, I daresay not," the painter said.