Who is Ephraim from Sudden Fiction International: Sixty Short-short Stories and what is their importance?

Ephraim is an aged widower in The Model. When he was younger, he took art classes, and now that he has resolved to try to paint again. He calls an art school and talks the operator into sending a woman in her thirties to model for him. Ms. Perry, a severe woman, arrives and poses for him. After a moment, though, she deduces that he is not a working artist. She accuses him of bringing her over to leer. He apologizes, but Ms. Perry forces him to strip for her so she can draw him. He does, and she blots out her drawing after she is done. After she has left, Ephraim decides his life is over.