The artist painter, Mr. Penniless, is busy painting a portrait of a handsome lady. From the way in which he treats his work it is evident that he is very much in love with his model and that at the same time he is distracted and downcast on account of her being very well off, while he himself is as poor as a church mouse. His reflections are interrupted by a knocking at the door. Could it be the fair lady? No, it is too early yet. He must just have a look at the intruder through the keyhole. Alas, it is his landlord, whom be owes three months house rent. “Let him knock,” the painter exclaims, and resumes his painting. It never occurred to him that the landlord might have a key of his own, by means of which he could open the door, so that Mr. Penniless is highly astonished when perceiving the landlord’s gray bead peeping in through the doorway. The grim humor which the painter displays has not the slightest effect on the landlord and neither the empty pockets nor the poor trunk, containing but one old shoe and a dirty collar, which is offered in pledge of the rent, do bring him around. At last the painter has no alternative but telling his landlord that he is going to marry a fortune, as he intends proposing to the well-to-do lady whom he is just painting. This way out of the difficulties pleases the man so much that he resolves to wait for the lady’s arrival, and the poor painter’s protests are of no use at all; yet at last the landlord consents to hide himself under the table, on condition, however, that he is allowed to tie a rope round the painter’s one leg and hold the rope himself. In this awkward position the poor painter must receive his beloved one and declare his love to her. When she refuses the suitor the landlord pulls the rope so violently that the painter tumbles backwards, upsetting the table. Now the scandal is obvious, but the result of the whole story is quite different from that which the painter had expected, as the pretty lady finally does not only pay his debts, but even gives him her valuable hand, and, after having boxed the landlord’s ears with the commenced portrait, the painter triumphantly leaves the room with his sweetheart.