“Yesterday,” she told me, “you left in my hands two portraits of my sister M. M., a Venetian. I ask you to leave them to me as a gift. - They are yours. - I am grateful to you for this. This is the first request. The second thing I ask of you is to accept my portrait, which I will give you tomorrow. - This will be, my dear friend, the most valuable of all my treasures; but I am surprised that you ask for this as a favor, while you are doing something to me that I would never dare to ask of you. How could I deserve that you want to have my portrait?..”