About this story
In the Louvre, a young copyist named Noemie Nioche talks you into buying her unfinished Madonna. That night at the Tristrams', you admit the real reason for the trip: you want a wife finer than money ever taught you to imagine. Mrs Tristram names Claire de Cintre, a guarded widow, and arranges an introduction. Days later, Claire herself asks you to call on her before she leaves Paris on Monday.
How it opens
The Louvre gallery stretched through dust, old paint, and the shuffle of tourist shoes.
You sat before a Madonna after months spent learning that Europe disliked useful schedules.
Noemie NiocheMonsieur desires a masterpiece, perhaps, or merely somewhere to rest?
I want the best picture available and have no talent for pretending otherwise.
Choose
Finish it well, and I will pay what good work deserves.
Tell me what you believe the picture is worth now.
I would rather buy your honest opinion of the original.