Serial ironies unfold as two simpatico literary masters delineate the evanescent border between appearance and reality. Wharton explores the relationship between a "fallen" woman and the cousin
who has raised her illegitimate child. It is a story with a remarkably modern sensibility that asks, "Who is the real mother?" James dissects the meaning of authenticity when a portrait painter
discovers that a threadbare but aristocratic couple serving as his models thwarts his artistic ambitions, while two lower-class models easily transform themselves into "the real thing."
