Theo watches the Chalice’s portrait wall continually refresh: each time a portrait is sold, Shep and Addie replace it with another from office inventory. Realizing that gifting one portrait a week would take nearly two years to clear the current wall, Theo decides to accelerate his “bestowals” to two or three a week, since he has the time and money to do it.

The faster pace increases the workload for Mrs. Gidley, who must track down recipients—especially when Asher has used nicknames like “Chard” or “G Dawg.” Mr. Ponder offers to hire extra help, but Mrs. Gidley refuses and commits herself to Theo’s “silly idea.” Meanwhile, Theo’s apartment fills with multiple framed faces at once, and his calendar fills with evening appointments as he handwrites invitation letters for Mrs. Gidley to deliver.

One portrait proves hard to deliver: Ellen, a familiar but homeless woman on the Promenade with no mailing address. Shep explains that Ellen sometimes stays at the Mission, often guards her bicycle, and can be hard to approach; he offers to find her, and Theo gives Shep a short, simple letter inviting Ellen to meet at the fountain on Thursday at four. Shep not only delivers the letter but reads and explains it to Ellen, who understands and asks only for confirmation of the time.

Before the meeting, Theo studies Ellen’s portrait and sees a wary, worn face marked by hardship, which makes him question how she could keep a framed picture. Still, he looks forward to meeting her and arrives early with an umbrella on a cloudy afternoon, only to find Ellen already waiting with her bicycle. Ellen appears strikingly different from the portrait: carefully dressed in shelter clothing, heavily made up, and wearing a dramatic blue velvet hat.

Ellen immediately tells Theo no man has ever sent her a handwritten letter, then pivots through abrupt questions and observations—critiquing Theo’s grammar, asking if he is a foreigner and “documented,” and challenging him with a theological question about whether Jesus could eat pork. Theo responds patiently and respectfully, trying to build rapport without mocking her, and learns that Ellen is homeless but literate and book-oriented. After Ellen bristles at a question about her bicycle, she relents and explains she calls it the “Noble Invention,” recounting how she found it and has lived with it for ten years. Finally, Theo shows Ellen her portrait; she studies it tenderly, accepts it carefully, and seems quietly pleased as Theo begins to tell her what he first wondered about her when he saw her eyes.