Delicate embarrassment, or, The rival friends [graphic]

Two fashionable young women sit in a room with green walls and an elaborate carpet, both looking away, lost in thought. Each woman is careful not to catch the eye of the other. On the tables next to each woman are a single rose and, on the opposite side, a book. Only a small lap dog, looking expectantly, eases the tension in the scene. The verse beneath the image summarises the situation or rivalary over a lover: "These Charming Friends whose kindred souls were Join'd, By all the nicer feelings of the Mind, Now on one object their affections plac’d, Each from the Other, Sighs to be releas’d".