Stone, like his contemporary Tissot, constructed dramatic narratives in his beautifully toned and finished paintings, with uncertain endings so elegantly poised that, at leisure, Queen Victoria’s family would recreate Marcus Stone’s theatrical paintings in tableaux vivant. Again like Tissot the action is set within a closed and intimate outdoor space, elevated like a stage, with a backdrop of foliage, with a scenery ‘flat’ to our right and artfully lit. This stage set is likely to have been inspired by Stone’s own garden in Holland Park, London, perhaps including architectural remains from the grounds of neighbouring Holland House. Like a photograph, the background is softly drawn but the figures are in sharp focus and spot lit. A charming but simple story is thus completely told, in one image. An Offer of Marriage was well received by the critics in various reviews of the 1883 Royal Academy exhibition. The report in the Illustrated London News described the action: 

A young lady has handed the letter of proposal to her aged papa or guardian, who, seated at an al fresco table, peruses it. As yet his expression is inscrutable; and the fair creature stands in piteous suspense, blushing, and closing her eyes, as though shutting out the dreaded possibility of refused consent. There is much technically in this picture that might be quoted by way of protest against a great deal of slip-slop work in the exhibition.

The Leytonstone Express enthused: 

Mr. Marcus Stone last year gave us the rejected lover. This year he portrays the receipt of a favoured offer of love. A young lady in pink has brought into the garden to her father, who is taking his midday meal, in the shadow of a pleasant arbour, a letter, to which manifestly she desires a kind reply. The painting in the garden, and of its occupants is delightful; and it shows Mr. Marcus Stone maintaining the position he has won.

The Scotsman observed that:

M. Stone’s quiet felicity in hitting off a bit of domestic drama is well displayed in the “Offer of Marriage”. Adopting his favourite mise en scene of a table spread for after-dinner coffee in the garden of a country mansion, he has represented the father in the act of coolly reading the important missive; while the daughter, in a state of severely-repressed excitement, stands by waiting his decision. Behind is heavily massed foliage, through which we catch sight of a red roof glowing in evening sunset. The foreground is in shadow, the subject being worked out in quiet tones, and with the somewhat mannered smoothness of this painter's usual practice.