Two women, nude and waist-deep in clear water, playfully interact in the marble pool at the centre foreground, their gestures animated and their bodies partially veiled by the rippling surface. The woman on the left wears a leafy crown and turns her head with a smile, while her companion, with golden hair, raises her arms as if to splash or greet her. The water, painted with delicate, translucent brushwork, distorts their forms and shimmers with subtle reflections of light.

Behind them, a wide marble staircase leads up to a sunlit hall where figures in draped Roman garments gather and converse, some seated on benches, others standing or entering through the open doorway. A large vase of purple flowers stands on a pedestal to the left, its blossoms rendered with precise, soft strokes that contrast with the cool, hard surfaces of the marble. Light pours in from the open doorway, illuminating the central figures and casting gentle shadows across the scene, while the background recedes into a more subdued palette of creams, greys, and soft golds.

The composition is carefully structured, leading the viewer's gaze from the intimate foreground bathers to the lively assembly in the upper chamber. A stone lion's head on the left edge of the pool spouts a stream of water into the bath below. On the right side of the marble bench, a woman with dark hair sits with her legs drawn up, holding a draped cloth across her lap.

A single pink flower lies on the marble step near the lower right corner, its petals slightly wilted. Several figures in the background wear pale robes, and one woman with a garland stands barefoot at the top of the stairs, turning toward the bathers. The upper left corner contains stacked white towels and a carved stone vessel placed on a dark pedestal table.

Soft, diffused sunlight falls most strongly on the marble surfaces and the two central bathers, while the upper chamber and far corners remain in cooler, shadowed tones. A Favourite Custom was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition in 1909 at Burlington House.