Oil on wood, 11.5 x 15 inches. Guildhall Art Gallery, London.

This small oil sketch is a study for a larger painting, its whereabouts now unknown, that Stone exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861. The inspiration for the picture is Act IV, Scene i, of Much Ado About Nothing when Claudio, tricked by the bastard Don John and his henchmen Borachio and Conrade, accuses Hero of infidelity just before they are to marry:

O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been,
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! Farewell,
Thou pure impiety and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.

Hero, who faints after Claudio's accusation, is supported by her cousin Beatrice as her father Leonato looks on in disbelief. Benedick stands beside Beatrice, and behind Claudio is his friend Don Pedro. Half-hidden, seemingly satisfied with his plot, is Don John. The expressions on the faces of the various characters capture this unexpected and dramatic turn of events in the play.

Marcus was the son of the painter Frank Stone, who numbered among his friends fellow-artists William Firth and William Mulready. These friendships and contacts were valuable to the young Stone; Frank Stone's friend Charles Dickens commissioned Marcus to illustrate several of his novels, among them Great Expectations and Our Mutual Friend.