At that point I could decide whether the painting that the woman is describing has any existence in the reality of the story, beyond her mentioning of it, or whether she has invented it, the way one might invent any kind of fiction, for a purpose that the novel would then be tasked with understanding, or discerning, insofar as the reader’s curiosity as to the woman’s motive will need to be satisfied before the reader can grasp the extent of her story’s consequences, and measure its significance with regard to how it is received by the two other women, who will respond to it however they wish to, or in whatever way is natural to them, with skepticism or belief (in equal or varying degrees), even if the novel chooses to explore the reaction of one of these women more than that of the other, or that of one of them to the exclusion of that of the other.