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Because of course we'll never know exactly what Sargent's intentions were -- unless there's a "letters to Theo" type of collection lying about somewhere, discussing the particulars -- in executing this or that feature in one of his portraits, my vote remains in favor of taking the painting to be as intended, that the mouth is not "wrong" but is perceptively, playfully, brilliantly "right".
That's just my uninformed take on it, based on observation of the work. I of course wasn't present and have no idea what Sargent might have said or had in mind at the time he was painting, whatever the legend and lore. I like to think that he had a bit of a wry grin himself as he placed Betty's mouth "just so" and saw that he'd captured her personality with even such slight, but deftly executed, detail. And even if he altered or exaggerated slightly what he saw to create that effect, I personally don't regard the result as therefore "wrong", but (though perhaps inscrutably) "right."
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