"But He Knew That Was Not the Reason" — Illustration for *Van Bibber and Others*

Gibson's pen-and-ink plate illustrates Richard Harding Davis's short-story collection Van Bibber and Others, depicting a tense domestic threshold scene. A tall man in top hat and frock coat holds a young child — presumably a girl — while three women in evening dress crowd the doorway behind him; the foremost woman, partially blocking the entrance, leans against the frame in a pose mixing welcome with resistance. The caption — "But he knew that was not the reason" — implies an unstated social or emotional deception, the polite excuse masking a real motive the man sees through. No ethnic caricature is visible. Gibson's characteristically fluid cross-hatching and the women's fashionable silhouettes already anticipate the Gibson Girl ideal he would refine throughout the decade.