He has been ill, hence his inability to ask Humphry to dine and to pay for his wife's portrait. Humphry was so desirous to paint his old friend and he could not refuse him. But Humphry must remember,
Mrs. Udny is aged 30 to 40, and he is 70, "the character of a smirking girl" is hardly appropriate. Some of his friends ridicule him for it. Even so, it will find a place in his home and be the only modern picture in it. He very nearly died the week preceding.