This refined and intimate work by Edmund Blair Leighton presents a courtly moment between a young woman and a suitor at the threshold of a stone manor. The woman, dressed in a golden gown, appears thoughtful as she listens to the man’s earnest appeal, suggesting a story of romance or chivalric pursuit. Leighton’s hallmark attention to period detail, from the architectural stonework to the richly textured garments and soft garden foliage, evokes a strong sense of nostalgia. The composition emphasizes restraint and gentle emotion, qualities that define much of Leighton’s oeuvre in Victorian and Edwardian genre painting.