Henry James
The Ambassadors
Preface
Nothing is more easy than to state the subject of »The Ambassadors« which first
appeared in twelve numbers of The North American Review 1903 and was published
as a whole the same year The situation involved is gathered up betimes that is
in the second chapter of Book Fifth for the readers benefit into as few words
as possible planted or sunk stiffly and saliently in the centre of the
current almost perhaps to the obstruction of traffic Never can a composition
of this sort have sprung straighter from a dropped grain of suggestion and
never can that grain developed overgrown and smothered have yet lurked more
in the mass as an independent particle The whole case in fine is in Lambert
Strethers irrepressible outbreak to little Bilham on the Sunday afternoon in
Glorianis garden the candour with which he yields for his young friends
enlightenment to the charming admonition of that crisis The idea of the tale
resides indeed in the very fact that an hour of such unprecedented ease should
have been felt by him as a crisis and he is at pains to express it for us as
neatly as we could desire The remarks to which he thus gives utterance contain
the essence of »The Ambassadors« his fingers close before he has done round
the stem of the fullblown flower which after that fashion he continues
officiously to present to us »Live all you can its a mistake not to It
doesnt so much matter what you do in particular so long as you have your life
If you havent had that what have you had Im too old too old at any rate for
what I see What one loses one loses make no mistake about that Still we have
the illusion of freedom therefore dont like me today be without the memory
of that illusion I was either at the right time too stupid or too intelligent
to have it and now Im a case of reaction against the mistake Do what you like
so long as you dont make it For it was a mistake Live live« Such is the
gist of Strethers appeal to the impressed youth whom he likes and whom he
desires to befriend the word mistake occurs several times it will be seen in
the course of his remarks which gives the measure of the signal warning he
feels attached to his case He has accordingly missed too much though perhaps
after all constitutionally qualified for a better part and he wakes up to it in
conditions that press the spring of a terrible question Would there yet perhaps
be time for reparation reparation that is for the injury done his
character for the affront he is quite ready to say so stupidly put upon it
and in which he has even himself had so clumsy a hand The answer to which is
that he now at all events sees so that the business of my tale and the march of
my action not to say the precious moral of everything is just my demonstration
of this process of vision
Nothing can exceed the closeness with which the whole fits again into its
germ That had been given me bodily as usual by the spoken word for I was to
take the image over exactly as I happened to have met it A friend had repeated
to me with great appreciation a thing or two said to him by a man of
distinction much his senior and to which a sense akin to that of Strethers
melancholy eloquence might be imputed said as chance would have and so easily
might in Paris and in a charming old garden attached to a house of art and on
a Sunday afternoon of summer many persons of great interest being present The
observation there listened to and gathered up had contained part of the note
that I was to recognise on the spot as to my purpose had contained in fact the
greater part the rest was in the place and the time and the scene they
sketched these constituents clustered and combined to give me further support
to give me what I may call the note absolute There it stands accordingly full
in the tideway driven in with hard taps like some strong stake for the noose
of a cable the swirl of the current roundabout it What amplified the hint to
more than the bulk of hints in general was the gift with it of the old Paris
garden for in that token were sealed up values infinitely precious There was
of course the seal to break and each item of the packet to count over and handle
and estimate but somehow in the light of the hint all the elements of a
situation of the sort most to my taste were there I could even remember no
occasion on which so confronted I had found it of a livelier interest to take
stock in this fashion of suggested wealth For I think verily that there are
degrees of merit in subjects in spite of the fact that to treat even one of
the most ambiguous with due decency we must for the time for the feverish and
prejudiced hour at least figure its merit and its dignity as possibly absolute
What it comes to doubtless is that even among the supremely good since with
such alone is it ones theory of ones honour to be concerned there is an
ideal beauty of goodness the invoked action of which is to raise the artistic
faith to its maximum Then truly I hold ones theme may be said to shine and
that of »The Ambassadors« I confess wore this glow for me from beginning to
end Fortunately thus I am able to estimate this as frankly quite the best
all round of all my productions any failure of that justification would have
made such an extreme of complacency publicly fatuous
I recall then in this connexion no moment of subjective intermittence never
one of those alarms as for a suspected hollow beneath ones feet a felt
ingratitude in the scheme adopted under which confidence fails and opportunity
seems but to mock If the motive of »The Wings of the Dove« as I have noted
was to worry me at moments by a sealingup of its face though without
prejudice to its again of a sudden fairly grimacing with expression so in
this other business I had absolute conviction and constant clearness to deal
with it had been a frank proposition the whole bunch of data installed on my
premises like a monotony of fine weather The order of composition in these
things I may mention was reversed by the order of publication the earlier
written of the two books having appeared as the later Even under the weight of
my heros years I could feel my postulate firm even under the strain of the
difference between those of Madame de Vionnet and those of Chad Newsome a
difference liable to be denounced as shocking I could still feel it serene
Nothing resisted nothing betrayed I seem to make out in this full and sound
sense of the matter it shed from any side I could turn it to the same golden
glow I rejoiced in the promise of a hero so mature who would give me thereby
the more to bite into since its only into thickened motive and accumulated
character I think that the painter of life bites more than a little My poor
friend should have accumulated character certainly or rather would be quite
naturally and handsomely possessed of it in the sense that he would have and
would always have felt he had imagination galore and that this yet wouldnt
have wrecked him It was immeasurable the opportunity to do a man of
imagination for if there mightnt be a chance to bite where in the world might
it be This personage of course so enriched wouldnt give me for his type
imagination in predominance or as his prime faculty nor should I in view of
other matters have found that convenient So particular a luxury some
occasion that is for study of the high gift in supreme command of a case or of
a career would still doubtless come on the day I should be ready to pay for
it and till then might as from far back remain hung up well in view and just
out of reach The comparative case meanwhile would serve it was only on the
minor scale that I had treated myself even to comparative cases
I was to hasten to add however that happy stopgaps as the minor scale had
thus yielded the instance in hand should enjoy the advantage of the full range
of the major since most immediately to the point was the question of that
supplement of situation logically involved in our gentlemans impulse to deliver
himself in the Paris garden on the Sunday afternoon or if not involved by
strict logic then all ideally and enchantingly implied in it I say ideally
because I need scarce mention that for development for expression of its
maximum my glimmering story was at the earliest stage to have nipped the
thread of connexion with the possibilities of the actual reported speaker He
remains but the happiest of accidents his actualities all too definite
precluded any range of possibilities it had only been his charming office to
project upon that wide field of the artists vision which hangs there ever in
place like the white sheet suspended for the figures of a childs magiclantern
a more fantastic and more moveable shadow No privilege of the teller of
tales and the handler of puppets is more delightful or has more of the suspense
and the thrill of a game of difficulty breathlessly played than just this
business of looking for the unseen and the occult in a scheme halfgrasped by
the light or so to speak by the clinging scent of the gage already in hand
No dreadful old pursuit of the hidden slave with bloodhounds and the rag of
association can ever for excitement I judge have bettered it at its best For
the dramatist always by the very law of his genius believes not only in a
possible right issue from the rightlyconceived tight place he does much more
than this he believes irresistibly in the necessary the precious tightness
of the place whatever the issue on the strength of any respectable hint It
being thus the respectable hint that I had with such avidity picked up what
would be the story to which it would most inevitably form the centre It is part
of the charm attendant on such questions that the story with the omens true as
I say puts on from this stage the authenticity of concrete existence It then
is essentially it begins to be though it may more or less obscurely lurk so
that the point is not in the least what to make of it but only very
delightfully and very damnably where to put ones hand on it
In which truth resides surely much of the interest of that admirable mixture
for salutary application which we know as art Art deals with what we see it
must first contribute fullhanded that ingredient it plucks its material
otherwise expressed in the garden of life which material elsewhere grown is
stale and uneatable But it has no sooner done this than it has to take account
of a process from which only when its the basest of the servants of man
incurring ignominious dismissal with no character does it and whether under
some muddled pretext of morality or on any other pusillanimously edge away The
process that of the expression the literal squeezingout of value is another
affair with which the happy luck of mere finding has little to do The joys of
finding at this stage are pretty well over that quest of the subject as a
whole by matching as the ladies say at the shops the big piece with the
snippet having ended we assume with a capture The subject is found and if
the problem is then transferred to the ground of what to do with it the field
opens out for any amount of doing This is precisely the infusion that as I
submit completes the strong mixture It is on the other hand the part of the
business that can least be likened to the chase with horn and hound Its all a
sedentary part involves as much ciphering of sorts as would merit the
highest salary paid to a chief accountant Not however that the chief
accountant hasnt his gleams of bliss for the felicity or at least the
equilibrium of the artists state dwells less surely in the further
delightful complications he can smuggle in than in those he succeeds in keeping
out He sows his seed at the risk of too thick a crop wherefore yet again like
the gentlemen who audit ledgers he must keep his head at any price In
consequence of all which for the interest of the matter I might seem here to
have my choice of narrating my hunt for Lambert Strether of describing the
capture of the shadow projected by my friends anecdote or of reporting on the
occurrences subsequent to that triumph But I had probably best attempt a little
to glance in each direction since it comes to me again and again over this
licentious record that ones bag of adventures conceived or conceivable has
been only halfemptied by the mere telling of ones story It depends so on what
one means by that equivocal quantity There is the story of ones hero and
then thanks to the intimate connexion of things the story of ones story
itself I blush to confess it but if ones a dramatist ones a dramatist and
the latter imbroglio is liable on occasion to strike me as really the more
objective of the two
The philosophy imputed to him in that beautiful outbreak the hour there
amid such happy provision striking for him would have been then on behalf of
my man of imagination to be logically and as the artless craft of comedy has
it led up to the probable course to such a goal the goal of so conscious a
predicament would have in short to be finely calculated Where has he come from
and why has he come what is he doing as we AngloSaxons and we only say in
our foredoomed clutch of exotic aids to expression in that galère To answer
these questions plausibly to answer them as under crossexamination in the
witnessbox by counsel for the prosecution in other words satisfactorily to
account for Strether and for his peculiar tone was to possess myself of the
entire fabric At the same time the clue to its whereabouts would lie in a
certain principle of probability he wouldnt have indulged in his peculiar tone
without a reason it would take a felt predicament or a false position to give
him so ironic an accent One hadnt been noting tones all ones life without
recognising when one heard it the voice of the false position The dear man in
the Paris garden was then admirably and unmistakeably in one which was no
small point gained what next accordingly concerned us was the determination of
this identity One could only go by probabilities but there was the advantage
that the most general of the probabilities were virtual certainties Possessed
of our friends nationality to start with there was a general probability in
his narrower localism which for that matter one had really but to keep under
the lens for an hour to see it give up its secrets He would have issued our
rueful worthy from the very heart of New England at the heels of which matter
of course a perfect train of secrets tumbled for me into the light They had to
be sifted and sorted and I shall not reproduce the detail of that process but
unmistakeably they were all there and it was but a question auspiciously of
picking among them What the position would infallibly be and why on his
hands it had turned false these inductive steps could only be as rapid as
they were distinct I accounted for everything and everything had by this time
become the most promising quantity by the view that he had come to Paris in
some state of mind which was literally undergoing as a result of new and
unexpected assaults and infusions a change almost from hour to hour He had
come with a view that might have been figured by a clear green liquid say in a
neat glass phial and the liquid once poured into the open cup of application
once exposed to the action of another air had begun to turn from green to red
or whatever and might for all he knew be on its way to purple to black to
yellow At the still wilder extremes represented perhaps for all he could say
to the contrary by a variability so violent he would at first naturally but
have gazed in surprise and alarm whereby the situation clearly would spring
from the play of wildness and the development of extremes I saw in a moment
that should this development proceed both with force and logic my story would
leave nothing to be desired There is always of course for the storyteller
the irresistible determinant and the incalculable advantage of his interest in
the story as such it is ever obviously overwhelmingly the prime and precious
thing as other than this I have never been able to see it as to which what
makes for it with whatever headlong energy may be said to pale before the
energy with which it simply makes for itself It rejoices none the less at its
best to seem to offer itself in a light to seem to know and with the very
last knowledge what its about liable as it yet is at moments to be caught by
us with its tongue in its cheek and absolutely no warrant but its splendid
impudence Let us grant then that the impudence is always there there so to
speak for grace and effect and allure there above all because the Story is
just the spoiled child of art and because as we are always disappointed when
the pampered dont play up we like it to that extent to look all its
character It probably does so in truth even when we most flatter ourselves
that we negotiate with it by treaty
All of which again is but to say that the steps for my fable placed
themselves with a prompt and as it were functional assurance an air quite as
of readiness to have dispensed with logic had I been in fact too stupid for my
clue Never positively none the less as the links multiplied had I felt less
stupid than for the determination of poor Strethers errand and for the
apprehension of his issue These things continued to fall together as by the
neat action of their own weight and form even while their commentator scratched
his head about them he easily sees now that they were always well in advance of
him As the case completed itself he had in fact from a good way behind to
catch up with them breathless and a little flurried as he best could The
false position for our belated man of the world belated because he had
endeavoured so long to escape being one and now at last had really to face his
doom the false position for him I say was obviously to have presented
himself at the gate of that boundless menagerie primed with a moral scheme of
the most approved pattern which was yet framed to break down on any approach to
vivid facts that is to any at all liberal appreciation of them There would
have been of course the case of the Strether prepared wherever presenting
himself only to judge and to feel meanly but he would have moved for me I
confess enveloped in no legend whatever The actual mans note from the first
of our seeing it struck is the note of discrimination just as his drama is to
become under stress the drama of discrimination It would have been his blest
imagination we have seen that had already helped him to discriminate the
element that was for so much of the pleasure of my cutting thick as I have
intimated into his intellectual into his moral substance Yet here it was at
the same time just here that a shade for a moment fell across the scene
There was the dreadful little old tradition one of the platitudes of the
human comedy that peoples moral scheme does break down in Paris that nothing
is more frequently observed that hundreds of thousands of more or less
hypocritical or more or less cynical persons annually visit the place for the
sake of the probable catastrophe and that I came late in the day to work myself
up about it There was in fine the trivial association one of the vulgarest in
the world but which give me pause no longer I think simply because its
vulgarity is so advertised The revolution performed by Strether under the
influence of the most interesting of great cities was to have nothing to do with
any bêtise of the imputably tempted state he was to be thrown forward rather
thrown quite with violence upon his lifelong trick of intense reflexion which
friendly test indeed was to bring him out through winding passages through
alternations of darkness and light very much in Paris but with the surrounding
scene itself a minor matter a mere symbol for more things than had been dreamt
of in the philosophy of Woollett Another surrounding scene would have done as
well for our show could it have represented a place in which Strethers errand
was likely to lie and his crisis to await him The likely place had the great
merit of sparing me preparations there would have been too many involved not
at all impossibilities only rather worrying and delaying difficulties in
positing elsewhere Chad Newsomes interesting relation his so interesting
complexity of relations Strethers appointed stage in fine could be but
Chads most luckily selected one The young man had gone in as they say for
circumjacent charm and where he would have found it by the turn of his mind
most authentic was where his earnest friends analysis would most find him as
well as where for that matter the formers whole analytic faculty would be led
such a wonderful dance
»The Ambassadors« had been all conveniently arranged for its first
appearance was from month to month in the North American Review during 1903
and I had been open from far back to any pleasant provocation for ingenuity that
might reside in ones actively adopting so as to make it in its way a small
compositional law recurrent breaks and resumptions I had made up my mind here
regularly to exploit and enjoy these often rather rude jolts having found as
I believed an admirable way to it yet every question of form and pressure I
easily remember paled in the light of the major propriety recognised as soon
as really weighed that of employing but one centre and keeping it all within my
heros compass The thing was to be so much this worthys intimate adventure
that even the projection of his consciousness upon it from beginning to end
without intermission or deviation would probably still leave a part of its value
for him and a fortiori for ourselves unexpressed I might however express
every grain of it that there would be room for on condition of contriving a
splendid particular economy Other persons in no small number were to people the
scene and each with his or her axe to grind his or her situation to treat his
or her coherency not to fail of his or her relation to my leading motive in a
word to establish and carry on But Strethers sense of these things and
Strethers only should avail me for showing them I should know them but
through his more or less groping knowledge of them since his very gropings
would figure among his most interesting motions and a full observance of the
rich rigour I speak of would give me more of the effect I should be most after
than all other possible observances together It would give me a large unity
and that in turn would crown me with the grace to which the enlightened
storyteller will at any time for his interest sacrifice if need be all other
graces whatever I refer of course to the grace of intensity which there are
ways of signally achieving and ways of signally missing as we see it all
round us helplessly and woefully missed Not that it isnt on the other hand
a virtue eminently subject to appreciation there being no strict no absolute
measure of it so that one may hear it acclaimed where it has quite escaped
ones perception and see it unnoticed where one has gratefully hailed it After
all of which I am not sure either that the immense amusement of the whole
cluster of difficulties so arrayed may not operate for the fond fabulist when
judicious not less than fond as his best of determinants That charming
principle is always there at all events to keep interest fresh it is a
principle we remember essentially ravenous without scruple and without mercy
appeased with no cheap nor easy nourishment It enjoys the costly sacrifice and
rejoices thereby in the very odour of difficulty even as ogres with their
Feefawfum rejoice in the smell of the blood of Englishmen
Thus it was at all events that the ultimate though after all so speedy
definition of my gentlemans job his coming out all solemnly appointed and
deputed to save Chad and his then finding the young man so disobligingly and
at first so bewilderingly not lost that a new issue altogether in the
connexion prodigiously faces them which has to be dealt with in a new light
promised as many calls on ingenuity and on the higher branches of the
compositional art as one could possibly desire Again and yet again as from
book to book I proceed with my survey I find no source of interest equal to
this verification after the fact as I may call it and the more in detail the
better of the scheme of consistency gone in for As always since the charm
never fails the retracing of the process from point to point brings back the
old illusion The old intentions bloom again and flower in spite of all the
blossoms they were to have dropped by the way This is the charm as I say of
adventure transposed the thrilling ups and downs the intricate ins and outs
of the compositional problem made after such a fashion admirably objective
becoming the question at issue and keeping the authors heart in his mouth Such
an element for instance as his intention that Mrs Newsome away off with her
finger on the pulse of Massachusetts should yet be no less intensely than
circuitously present through the whole thing should be no less felt as to be
reckoned with than the most direct exhibition the finest portrayal at first
hand could make her such a sign of artistic good faith I say once its
unmistakeably there takes on again an actuality not too much impaired by the
comparative dimness of the particular success Cherished intention too
inevitably acts and operates in the book about fifty times as little as I had
fondly dreamt it might but that scarce spoils for me the pleasure of
recognising the fifty ways in which I had sought to provide for it The mere
charm of seeing such an idea constituent in its degree the fineness of the
measures taken a real extension if successful of the very terms and
possibilities of representation and figuration such things alone were after
this fashion inspiring such things alone were a gage of the probable success
of that dissimulated calculation with which the whole effort was to square But
oh the cares begotten none the less of that same judicious sacrifice to a
particular form of interest Ones work should have composition because
composition alone is positive beauty but all the while apart from ones
inevitable consciousness too of the dire paucity of readers ever recognising or
ever missing positive beauty how as to the cheap and easy at every turn
how as to immediacy and facility and even as to the commoner vivacity
positive beauty might have to be sweated for and paid for Once achieved and
installed it may always be trusted to make the poor seeker feel he would have
blushed to the roots of his hair for failing of it yet how as its virtue can
be essentially but the virtue of the whole the wayside traps set in the
interest of muddlement and pleading but the cause of the moment of the
particular bit in itself have to be kicked out of the path All the
sophistications in life for example might have appeared to muster on behalf of
the menace the menace to a bright variety involved in Strethers having all
the subjective say as it were to himself
Had I meanwhile made him at once hero and historian endowed him with the
romantic privilege of the first person the darkest abyss of romance this
inveterately when enjoyed on the grand scale variety and many other queer
matters as well might have been smuggled in by a back door Suffice it to be
brief that the first person in the long piece is a form foredoomed to
looseness and that looseness never much my affair had never been so little so
as on this particular occasion All of which reflexions flocked to the standard
from the moment a very early one the question of how to keep my form amusing
while sticking so close to my central figure and constantly taking its pattern
from him had to be faced He arrives arrives at Chester as for the dreadful
purpose of giving his creator no end to tell about him before which rigorous
mission the serenest of creators might well have quailed I was far from the
serenest I was more than agitated enough to reflect that grimly deprived of
one alternative or one substitute for telling I must address myself tooth and
nail to another I couldnt save by implication make other persons tell each
other about him blest resource blest necessity of the drama which reaches
its effects of unity all remarkably by paths absolutely opposite to the paths
of the novel with other persons save as they were primarily his persons not
he primarily but one of theirs I had simply nothing to do I had relations for
him none the less by the mercy of Providence quite as much as if my exhibition
was to be a muddle if I could only by implication and a show of consequence
make other persons tell each other about him I could at least make him tell
them whatever in the world he must and could so by the same token which was
a further luxury thrown in see straight into the deep differences between what
that could do for me or at all events for him and the large ease of
autobiography It may be asked why if one so keeps to ones hero one shouldnt
make a single mouthful of method shouldnt throw the reins on his neck and
letting them flap there as free as in »Gil Blas« or in »David Copperfield«
equip him with the double privilege of subject and object a course that has at
least the merit of brushing away questions at a sweep The answer to which is I
think that one makes that surrender only if one is prepared not to make certain
precious discriminations
The first person then so employed is addressed by the author directly to
ourselves his possible readers whom he has to reckon with at the best by our
English tradition so loosely and vaguely after all so little respectfully on
so scant a presumption of exposure to criticism Strether on the other hand
encaged and provided for as »The Ambassadors« encages and provides has to keep
in view proprieties much stiffer and more salutary than any our straight and
credulous gape are likely to bring home to him has exhibitional conditions to
meet in a word that forbid the terrible fluidity of selfrevelation I may
seem not to better the case for my discrimination if I say that for my first
care I had thus inevitably to set him up a confidant or two to wave away with
energy the custom of the seated mass of explanation after the fact the inserted
block of merely referential narrative which flourishes so to the shame of the
modern impatience on the serried page of Balzac but which seems simply to
appal our actual our general weaker digestion »Harking back to make up« took
at any rate more doing as the phrase is not only than the reader of today
demands but than he will tolerate at any price any call upon him either to
understand or remotely to measure and for the beauty of the thing when done the
current editorial mind in particular appears wholly without sense It is not
however primarily for either of these reasons whatever their weight that
Strethers friend Waymarsh is so keenly clutched at on the threshold of the
book or that no less a pounce is made on Maria Gostrey without even the
pretext either of her being in essence Strethers friend She is the
readers friend much rather in consequence of dispositions that make him so
eminently require one and she acts in that capacity and really in that
capacity alone with exemplary devotion from beginning to end of the book She
is an enrolled a direct aid to lucidity she is in fine to tear off her mask
the most unmitigated and abandoned of ficelles Half the dramatists art as we
well know since if we dont its not the fault of the proofs that lie
scattered about us is in the use of ficelles by which I mean in a deep
dissimulation of his dependence on them Waymarsh only to a slighter degree
belongs in the whole business less to my subject than to my treatment of it
the interesting proof in these connexions being that one has but to take ones
subject for the stuff of drama to interweave with enthusiasm as many Gostreys as
need be
The material of »The Ambassadors« conforming in this respect exactly to
that of »The Wings of the Dove« published just before it is taken absolutely
for the stuff of drama so that availing myself of the opportunity given me by
this edition for some prefatory remarks on the latter work I had mainly to make
on its behalf the point of its scenic consistency It disguises that virtue in
the oddest way in the world by just looking as we turn its pages as little
scenic as possible but it sharply divides itself just as the composition
before us does into the parts that prepare that tend in fact to overprepare
for scenes and the parts or otherwise into the scenes that justify and crown
the preparation It may definitely be said I think that everything in it that
is not scene not I of course mean complete and functional scene treating all
the submitted matter as by logical start logical turn and logical finish is
discriminated preparation is the fusion and synthesis of picture These
alternations propose themselves all recogniseably I think from an early stage
as the very form and figure of »The Ambassadors« so that to repeat such an
agent as Miss Gostrey preengaged at a high salary but waits in the draughty
wing with her shawl and her smellingsalts Her function speaks at once for
itself and by the time she has dined with Strether in London and gone to a play
with him her intervention as a ficelle is I hold expertly justified Thanks to
it we have treated scenically and scenically alone the whole lumpish question
of Strethers past which has seen us more happily on the way than anything else
could have done we have strained to a high lucidity and vivacity or at least
we hope we have certain indispensable facts we have seen our two or three
immediate friends all conveniently and profitably in action to say nothing of
our beginning to descry others of a remoter intensity getting into motion
even if a bit vaguely as yet for our further enrichment Let my first point be
here that the scene in question that in which the whole situation at Woollett
and the complex forces that have propelled my hero to where this lively
extractor of his value and distiller of his essence awaits him is normal and
entire is really an excellent standard scene copious comprehensive and
accordingly never short but with its office as definite as that of the hammer
on the gong of the clock the office of expressing all that is in the hour
The ficelle character of the subordinate party is as artfully dissimulated
throughout as may be and to that extent that with the seams or joints of
Maria Gostreys ostensible connectedness taken particular care of duly smoothed
over that is and anxiously kept from showing as pieced on this figure
doubtless achieves after a fashion something of the dignity of a prime idea
which circumstance but shows us afresh how many quite incalculable but none the
less clear sources of enjoyment for the infatuated artist how many copious
springs of our nevertobeslighted fun for the reader and critic susceptible of
contagion may sound their incidental plash as soon as an artistic process
begins to enjoy free development Exquisite in illustration of this the mere
interest and amusement of such at once creative and critical questions as how
and where and why to make Miss Gostreys false connexion carry itself under a
due high polish as a real one Nowhere is it more of an artful expedient for
mere consistency of form to mention a case than in the last scene of the book
where its function is to give or to add nothing whatever but only to express as
vividly as possible certain things quite other than itself and that are of the
already fixed and appointed measure Since however all art is expression and
is thereby vividness one was to find the door open here to any amount of
delightful dissimulation These verily are the refinements and ecstasies of
method amid which or certainly under the influence of any exhilarated
demonstration of which one must keep ones head and not lose ones way To
cultivate an adequate intelligence for them and to make that sense operative is
positively to find a charm in any produced ambiguity of appearance that is not
by the same stroke and all helplessly an ambiguity of sense To project
imaginatively for my hero a relation that has nothing to do with the matter
the matter of my subject but has everything to do with the manner the manner
of my presentation of the same and yet to treat it at close quarters and for
fully economic expressions possible sake as if it were important and essential
to do that sort of thing and yet muddle nothing may easily become as one
goes a signally attaching proposition even though it all remains but part and
parcel I hasten to recognise of the merely general and related question of
expressional curiosity and expressional decency
I am moved to add after so much insistence on the scenic side of my labour
that I have found the steps of reperusal almost as much waylaid here by quite
another style of effort in the same signal interest or have in other words not
failed to note how even so associated and so discriminated the finest
proprieties and charms of the nonscenic may under the right hand for them
still keep their intelligibility and assert their office Infinitely suggestive
such an observation as this last on the whole delightful head where
representation is concerned of possible variety of effective expressional
change and contrast One would like at such an hour as this for critical
licence to go into the matter of the noted inevitable deviation from too fond
an original vision that the exquisite treachery even of the straightest
execution may ever be trusted to inflict even on the most mature plan the case
being that though ones last reconsidered production always seems to bristle
with that particular evidence »The Ambassadors« would place a flood of such
light at my service I must attach to my final remark here a different import
noting in the other connexion I just glanced at that such passages as that of my
heros first encounter with Chad Newsome absolute attestations of the
nonscenic form though they be yet lay the firmest hand too so far at least
as intention goes on representational effect To report at all closely and
completely of what passes on a given occasion is inevitably to become more or
less scenic and yet in the instance I allude to with the conveyance
expressional curiosity and expressional decency are sought and arrived at under
quite another law The true inwardness of this may be at bottom but that one of
the suffered treacheries has consisted precisely for Chads whole figure and
presence of a direct presentability diminished and compromised despoiled
that is of its proportional advantage so that in a word the whole economy of
his authors relation to him has at important points to be redetermined The
book however critically viewed is touchingly full of these disguised and
repaired losses these insidious recoveries these intensely redemptive
consistencies The pages in which Mamie Pocock gives her appointed and I cant
but think duly felt lift to the whole action by the so inscrutablyapplied
sidestroke or shortcut of our just watching and as quite at an angle of
vision as yet untried her single hour of suspense in the hotel salon in our
partaking of her concentrated study of the sense of matters bearing on her own
case all the bright warm Paris afternoon from the balcony that overlooks the
Tuileries garden these are as marked an example of the representational virtue
that insists here and there on being for the charm of opposition and renewal
other than the scenic It wouldnt take much to make me further argue that from
an equal play of such oppositions the book gathers an intensity that fairly adds
to the dramatic though the latter is supposed to be the sum of all
intensities or that has at any rate nothing to fear from juxtaposition with it
I consciously fail to shrink in fact from that extravagance I risk it rather
for the sake of the moral involved which is not that the particular production
before us exhausts the interesting questions it raises but that the Novel
remains still under the right persuasion the most independent most elastic
most prodigious of literary forms
HENRY JAMES
Book First
I
Strethers first question when he reached the hotel was about his friend yet
on his learning that Waymarsh was apparently not to arrive till evening he was
not wholly disconcerted A telegram from him bespeaking a room »only if not
noisy« reply paid was produced for the enquirer at the office so that the
understanding they should meet at Chester rather than at Liverpool remained to
that extent sound The same secret principle however that had prompted
Strether not absolutely to desire Waymarshs presence at the dock that had led
him thus to postpone for a few hours his enjoyment of it now operated to make
him feel he could still wait without disappointment They would dine together at
the worst and with all respect to dear old Waymarsh if not even for that
matter to himself there was little fear that in the sequel they shouldnt see
enough of each other The principle I have just mentioned as operating had been
with the most newly disembarked of the two men wholly instinctive the fruit
of a sharp sense that delightful as it would be to find himself looking after
so much separation into his comrades face his business would be a trifle
bungled should he simply arrange for this countenance to present itself to the
nearing steamer as the first note of Europe Mixed with everything was the
apprehension already on Strethers part that it would at best throughout
prove the note of Europe in quite a sufficient degree
That note had been meanwhile since the previous afternoon thanks to this
happier device such a consciousness of personal freedom as he hadnt known for
years such a deep taste of change and of having above all for the moment nobody
and nothing to consider as promised already if headlong hope were not too
foolish to colour his adventure with cool success There were people on the
ship with whom he had easily consorted so far as ease could up to now be
imputed to him and who for the most part plunged straight into the current
that set from the landingstage to London there were others who had invited him
to a tryst at the inn and had even invoked his aid for a look round at the
beauties of Liverpool but he had stolen away from every one alike had kept no
appointment and renewed no acquaintance had been indifferently aware of the
number of persons who esteemed themselves fortunate in being unlike himself
met and had even independently unsociably alone without encounter or
relapse and by mere quiet evasion given his afternoon and evening to the
immediate and the sensible They formed a qualified draught of Europe an
afternoon and an evening on the banks of the Mersey but such as it was he took
his potion at least undiluted He winced a little truly at the thought that
Waymarsh might be already at Chester he reflected that should he have to
describe himself there as having got in so early it would be difficult to make
the interval look particularly eager but he was like a man who elatedly
finding in his pocket more money than usual handles it a while and idly and
pleasantly chinks it before addressing himself to the business of spending That
he was prepared to be vague to Waymarsh about the hour of the ships touching
and that he both wanted extremely to see him and enjoyed extremely the duration
of delay these things it is to be conceived were early signs in him that his
relation to his actual errand might prove none of the simplest He was burdened
poor Strether it had better be confessed at the outset with the oddity of a
double consciousness There was detachment in his zeal and curiosity in his
indifference
After the young woman in the glass cage had held up to him across her
counter the palepink leaflet bearing his friends name which she neatly
pronounced he turned away to find himself in the hall facing a lady who met
his eyes as with an intention suddenly determined and whose features not
freshly young not markedly fine but on happy terms with each other came back
to him as from a recent vision For a moment they stood confronted then the
moment placed her he had noticed her the day before noticed her at his
previous inn where again in the hall she had been briefly engaged with some
people of his own ships company Nothing had actually passed between them and
he would as little have been able to say what had been the sign of her face for
him on the first occasion as to name the ground of his present recognition
Recognition at any rate appeared to prevail on her own side as well which
would only have added to the mystery All she now began by saying to him
nevertheless was that having chanced to catch his enquiry she was moved to
ask by his leave if it were possibly a question of Mr Waymarsh of Milrose
Connecticut Mr Waymarsh the American lawyer
»Oh yes« he replied »my very wellknown friend Hes to meet me here
coming up from Malvern and I supposed hed already have arrived But he doesnt
come till later and Im relieved not to have kept him Do you know him«
Strether wound up
It wasnt till after he had spoken that he became aware of how much there
had been in him of response when the tone of her own rejoinder as well as the
play of something more in her face something more that is than its
apparently usual restless light seemed to notify him »Ive met him at Milrose
where I used sometimes a good while ago to stay I had friends there who
were friends of his and Ive been at his house I wont answer for it that he
would know me« Strethers new acquaintance pursued »but I should be delighted
to see him Perhaps« she added »I shall for Im staying over« She paused
while our friend took in these things and it was as if a good deal of talk had
already passed They even vaguely smiled at it and Strether presently observed
that Mr Waymarsh would no doubt be easily to be seen This however appeared
to affect the lady as if she might have advanced too far She appeared to have
no reserves about anything »Oh« she said »he wont care« and she
immediately thereupon remarked that she believed Strether knew the Munsters the
Munsters being the people he had seen her with at Liverpool
But he didnt it happened know the Munsters well enough to give the case
much of a lift so that they were left together as if over the mere laid table
of conversation Her qualification of the mentioned connexion had rather removed
than placed a dish and there seemed nothing else to serve Their attitude
remained none the less that of not forsaking the board and the effect of this
in turn was to give them the appearance of having accepted each other with an
absence of preliminaries practically complete They moved along the hall
together and Strethers companion threw off that the hotel had the advantage of
a garden He was aware by this time of his strange inconsequence he had shirked
the intimacies of the steamer and had muffled the shock of Waymarsh only to find
himself forsaken in this sudden case both of avoidance and of caution He
passed under this unsought protection and before he had so much as gone up to
his room into the garden of the hotel and at the end of ten minutes had agreed
to meet there again as soon as he should have made himself tidy the dispenser
of such good assurances He wanted to look at the town and they would forthwith
look together It was almost as if she had been in possession and received him
as a guest Her acquaintance with the place presented her in a manner as a
hostess and Strether had a rueful glance for the lady in the glass cage It was
as if this personage had seen herself instantly superseded
When in a quarter of an hour he came down what his hostess saw what she
might have taken in with a vision kindly adjusted was the lean the slightly
loose figure of a man of the middle height and something more perhaps than the
middle age a man of five whose most immediate signs were a marked bloodless
brownness of face a thick dark moustache of characteristically American cut
growing strong and falling low a head of hair still abundant but irregularly
streaked with grey and a nose of bold free prominence the even line the high
finish as it might have been called of which had a certain effect of
mitigation A perpetual pair of glasses astride of this fine ridge and a line
unusually deep and drawn the prolonged penstroke of time accompanying the
curve of the moustache from nostril to chin did something to complete the
facial furniture that an attentive observer would have seen catalogued on the
spot in the vision of the other party to Strethers appointment She waited for
him in the garden the other party drawing on a pair of singularly fresh soft
and elastic light gloves and presenting herself with a superficial readiness
which as he approached her over the small smooth lawn and in the watery English
sunshine he might with his rougher preparation have marked as the model for
such an occasion She had this lady a perfect plain propriety an expensive
subdued suitability that her companion was not free to analyse but that struck
him so that his consciousness of it was instantly acute as a quality quite new
to him Before reaching her he stopped on the grass and went through the form of
feeling for something possibly forgotten in the light overcoat he carried on
his arm yet the essence of the act was no more than the impulse to gain time
Nothing could have been odder than Strethers sense of himself as at that moment
launched in something of which the sense would be quite disconnected from the
sense of his past and which was literally beginning there and then It had begun
in fact already upstairs and before the dressingglass that struck him as
blocking further so strangely the dimness of the window of his dull bedroom
begun with a sharper survey of the elements of Appearance than he had for a long
time been moved to make He had during those moments felt these elements to be
not so much to his hand as he should have liked and then had fallen back on the
thought that they were precisely a matter as to which help was supposed to come
from what he was about to do He was about to go up to London so that hat and
necktie might wait What had come as straight to him as a ball in a wellplayed
game and caught moreover not less neatly was just the air in the person of
his friend of having seen and chosen the air of achieved possession of those
vague qualities and quantities that collectively figured to him as the advantage
snatched from lucky chances Without pomp or circumstance certainly as her
original address to him equally with his own response had been he would have
sketched to himself his impression of her as »Well shes more thoroughly
civilized « If »More thoroughly than whom« would not have been for him a
sequel to this remark that was just by reason of his deep consciousness of the
bearing of his comparison
The amusement at all events of a civilisation intenser was what familiar
compatriot as she was with the full tone of the compatriot and the rattling
link not with mystery but only with dear dyspeptic Waymarsh she appeared
distinctly to promise His pause while he felt in his overcoat was positively
the pause of confidence and it enabled his eyes to make out as much of a case
for her in proportion as her own made out for himself She affected him as
almost insolently young but an easily carried fiveandthirty could still do
that She was however like himself marked and wan only it naturally couldnt
have been known to him how much a spectator looking from one to the other might
have discerned that they had in common It wouldnt for such a spectator have
been altogether insupposable that each so finely brown and so sharply spare
each confessing so to dents of surface and aids to sight to a disproportionate
nose and a head delicately or grossly grizzled they might have been brother and
sister On this ground indeed there would have been a residuum of difference
such a sister having surely known in respect to such a brother the extremity of
separation and such a brother now feeling in respect to such a sister the
extremity of surprise Surprise it was true was not on the other hand what the
eyes of Strethers friend most showed him while she gave him stroking her
gloves smoother the time he appreciated They had taken hold of him
straightway measuring him up and down as if they knew how as if he were human
material they had already in some sort handled Their possessor was in truth it
may be communicated the mistress of a hundred cases or categories receptacles
of the mind subdivisions for convenience in which from a full experience she
pigeonholed her fellow mortals with a hand as free as that of a compositor
scattering type She was as equipped in this particular as Strether was the
reverse and it made an opposition between them which he might well have shrunk
from submitting to if he had fully suspected it So far as he did suspect it he
was on the contrary after a short shake of his consciousness as pleasantly
passive as might be He really had a sort of sense of what she knew He had
quite the sense that she knew things he didnt and though this was a concession
that in general he found not easy to make to women he made it now as
goodhumouredly as if it lifted a burden His eyes were so quiet behind his
eternal nippers that they might almost have been absent without changing his
face which took its expression mainly and not least its stamp of sensibility
from other sources surface and grain and form He joined his guide in an
instant and then felt she had profited still better than he by his having been
for the moments just mentioned so at the disposal of her intelligence She knew
even intimate things about him that he hadnt yet told her and perhaps never
would He wasnt unaware that he had told her rather remarkably many for the
time but these were not the real ones Some of the real ones however
precisely were what she knew
They were to pass again through the hall of the inn to get into the street
and it was here she presently checked him with a question »Have you looked up
my name«
He could only stop with a laugh »Have you looked up mine«
»Oh dear yes as soon as you left me I went to the office and asked
Hadnt you better do the same«
He wondered »Find out who you are after the uplifted young woman there
has seen us thus scrape acquaintance«
She laughed on her side now at the shade of alarm in his amusement »Isnt
it a reason the more If what youre afraid of is the injury for me my being
seen to walk off with a gentleman who has to ask who I am I assure you I dont
in the least mind Here however« she continued »is my card and as I find
theres something else again I have to say at the office you can just study it
during the moment I leave you«
She left him after he had taken from her the small pasteboard she had
extracted from her pocketbook and he had extracted another from his own to
exchange with it before she came back He read thus the simple designation
Maria Gostrey to which was attached in a corner of the card with a number
the name of a street presumably in Paris without other appreciable identity
than its foreignness He put the card into his waistcoat pocket keeping his own
meanwhile in evidence and as he leaned against the doorpost he met with the
smile of a straying thought what the expanse before the hotel offered to his
view It was positively droll to him that he should already have Maria Gostrey
whoever she was of which he hadnt really the least idea in a place of safe
keeping He had somehow an assurance that he should carefully preserve the
little token he had just tucked in He gazed with unseeing lingering eyes as he
followed some of the implications of his act asking himself if he really felt
admonished to qualify it as disloyal It was prompt it was possibly even
premature and there was little doubt of the expression of face the sight of it
would have produced in a certain person But if it was wrong why then he had
better not have come out at all At this poor man had he already and even
before meeting Waymarsh arrived He had believed he had a limit but the limit
had been transcended within thirtysix hours By how long a space on the plane
of manners or even of morals moreover he felt still more sharply after Maria
Gostrey had come back to him and with a gay decisive »So now « led him forth
into the world This counted it struck him as he walked beside her with his
overcoat on an arm his umbrella under another and his personal pasteboard a
little stiffly retained between forefinger and thumb this struck him as really
in comparison his introduction to things It hadnt been Europe at Liverpool
no not even in the dreadful delightful impressive streets the night before
to the extent his present companion made it so She hadnt yet done that so much
as when after their walk had lasted a few minutes and he had had time to wonder
if a couple of sidelong glances from her meant that he had best have put on
gloves she almost pulled him up with an amused challenge »But why fondly as
its so easy to imagine your clinging to it dont you put it away Or if its
an inconvenience to you to carry it ones often glad to have ones card back
The fortune one spends in them«
Then he saw both that his way of marching with his own prepared tribute had
affected her as a deviation in one of those directions he couldnt yet measure
and that she supposed this emblem to be still the one he had received from her
He accordingly handed her the card as if in restitution but as soon as she had
it she felt the difference and with her eyes on it stopped short for apology
»I like« she observed »your name«
»Oh« he answered »you wont have heard of it« Yet he had his reasons for
not being sure but that she perhaps might
Ah it was but too visible She read it over again as one who had never seen
it » Mr Lewis Lambert Strether « she sounded it almost as freely as for any
stranger She repeated however that she liked it »particularly the Lewis
Lambert Its the name of a novel of Balzacs«
»Oh I know that« said Strether
»But the novels an awfully bad one«
»I know that too« Strether smiled To which he added with an irrelevance
that was only superficial »I come from Woollett Massachusetts« It made her for
some reason the irrelevance or whatever laugh Balzac had described many
cities but hadnt described Woollett Massachusetts »You say that« she
returned »as if you wanted one immediately to know the worst«
»Oh I think its a thing« he said »that you must already have made out I
feel it so that I certainly must look it speak it and as people say there
act it It sticks out of me and you knew surely for yourself as soon as you
looked at me«
»The worst you mean«
»Well the fact of where I come from There at any rate it is so that you
wont be able if anything happens to say Ive not been straight with you«
»I see« and Miss Gostrey looked really interested in the point he had
made »But what do you think of as happening«
Though he wasnt shy which was rather anomalous Strether gazed about
without meeting her eyes a motion that was frequent with him in talk yet of
which his words often seemed not at all the effect »Why that you should find me
too hopeless« With which they walked on again together while she answered as
they went that the most hopeless of her countryfolk were in general precisely
those she liked best All sorts of other pleasant small things small things
that were yet large for him flowered in the air of the occasion but the
bearing of the occasion itself on matters still remote concerns us too closely
to permit us to multiply our illustrations Two or three however in truth we
should perhaps regret to lose The tortuous wall girdle long since snapped
of the little swollen city half held in place by careful civic hands wanders
in narrow file between parapets smoothed by peaceful generations pausing here
and there for a dismantled gate or a bridged gap with rises and drops steps up
and steps down queer twists queer contacts peeps into homely streets and
under the brows of gables views of cathedral tower and waterside fields of
huddled English town and ordered English country Too deep almost for words was
the delight of these things to Strether yet as deeply mixed with it were
certain images of his inward picture He had trod this walk in the faroff time
at twentyfive but that instead of spoiling it only enriched it for present
feeling and marked his renewal as a thing substantial enough to share It was
with Waymarsh he should have shared it and he was now accordingly taking from
him something that was his due He looked repeatedly at his watch and when he
had done so for the fifth time Miss Gostrey took him up
»Youre doing something that you think not right«
It so touched the place that he quite changed colour and his laugh grew
almost awkward »Am I enjoying it as much as that«
»Youre not enjoying it I think so much as you ought«
»I see« he appeared thoughtfully to agree »Great is my privilege«
»Oh its not your privilege It has nothing to do with me It has to do with
yourself Your failures general«
»Ah there you are« he laughed »Its the failure of Woollett Thats
general«
»The failure to enjoy« Miss Gostrey explained »is what I mean«
»Precisely Woollett isnt sure it ought to enjoy If it were it would But
it hasnt poor thing« Strether continued »any one to show it how Its not
like me I have somebody«
They had stopped in the afternoon sunshine constantly pausing in their
stroll for the sharper sense of what they saw and Strether rested on one of
the high sides of the old stony groove of the little rampart He leaned back on
this support with his face to the tower of the cathedral now admirably
commanded by their station the high redbrown mass square and subordinately
spired and crocketed retouched and restored but charming to his longsealed
eyes and with the first swallows of the year weaving their flight all round it
Miss Gostrey lingered near him full of an air to which she more and more
justified her right of understanding the effect of things She quite concurred
»Youve indeed somebody« And she added »I wish you would let me show you how«
»Oh Im afraid of you« he cheerfully pleaded
She kept on him a moment through her glasses and through his own a certain
pleasant pointedness »Ah no youre not Youre not in the least thank
goodness If you had been we shouldnt so soon have found ourselves here
together I think« she comfortably concluded »you trust me«
»I think I do but thats exactly what Im afraid of I shouldnt mind if
I didnt Its falling thus in twenty minutes so utterly into your hands I dare
say« Strether continued »its a sort of thing youre thoroughly familiar with
but nothing more extraordinary has ever happened to me«
She watched him with all her kindness »That means simply that youve
recognised me which is rather beautiful and rare You see what I am« As on
this however he protested with a goodhumoured headshake a resignation of
any such claim she had a moment of explanation »If youll only come on further
as you have come youll at any rate make out My own fate has been too many for
me and Ive succumbed to it Im a general guide to Europe dont you know I
wait for people I put them through I pick them up I set them down Im a
sort of superior couriermaid Im a companion at large I take people as Ive
told you about I never sought it it has come to me It has been my fate and
ones fate one accepts Its a dreadful thing to have to say in so wicked a
world but I verily believe that such as you see me theres nothing I dont
know I know all the shops and the prices but I know worse things still I
bear on my back the huge load of our national consciousness or in other words
for it comes to that of our nation itself Of what is our nation composed
but of the men and women individually on my shoulders I dont do it you know
for any particular advantage I dont do it for instance some people do you
know for money«
Strether could only listen and wonder and weigh his chance »And yet
affected as you are then to so many of your clients you can scarcely be said to
do it for love« He waited a moment »How do we reward you«
She had her own hesitation but »You dont« she finally returned setting
him again in motion They went on but in a few minutes though while still
thinking over what she had said he once more took out his watch mechanically
unconsciously and as if made nervous by the mere exhilaration of what struck him
as her strange and cynical wit He looked at the hour without seeing it and
then on something again said by his companion had another pause »Youre
really in terror of him«
He smiled a smile that he almost felt to be sickly »Now you can see why Im
afraid of you«
»Because Ive such illuminations Why theyre all for your help Its what I
told you« she added »just now You feel as if this were wrong«
He fell back once more settling himself against the parapet as if to hear
more about it »Then get me out«
Her face fairly brightened for the joy of the appeal but as if it were a
question of immediate action she visibly considered »Out of waiting for him
of seeing him at all«
»Oh no not that« said poor Strether looking grave »Ive got to wait for
him and I want very much to see him But out of the terror You did put your
finger on it a few minutes ago Its general but it avails itself of particular
occasions Thats what its doing for me now Im always considering something
else something else I mean than the thing of the moment The obsession of the
other thing is the terror Im considering at present for instance something
else than you«
She listened with charming earnestness »Oh you oughtnt to do that«
»Its what I admit Make it then impossible«
She continued to think »Is it really an order from you that I shall take
the job Will you give yourself up«
Poor Strether heaved his sigh »If I only could But thats the deuce of it
that I never can No I cant«
She wasnt however discouraged »But you want to at least«
»Oh unspeakably«
»Ah then if youll try« and she took over the job as she had called it
on the spot »Trust me« she exclaimed and the action of this as they retraced
their steps was presently to make him pass his hand into her arm in the manner
of a benign dependent paternal old person who wishes to be nice to a younger
one If he drew it out again indeed as they approached the inn this may have
been because after more talk had passed between them the relation of age or
at least of experience which for that matter had already played to and fro
with some freedom affected him as incurring a readjustment It was at all
events perhaps lucky that they arrived in sufficiently separate fashion within
range of the hoteldoor The young lady they had left in the glass cage watched
as if she had come to await them on the threshold At her side stood a person
equally interested by his attitude in their return and the effect of the
sight of whom was instantly to determine for Strether another of those
responsive arrests that we have had so repeatedly to note He left it to Miss
Gostrey to name with the fine full bravado as it almost struck him of her Mr
Waymarsh what was to have been what he more than ever felt as his short
stare of suspended welcome took things in would have been but for herself
his doom It was already upon him even at that distance Mr Waymarsh was for
his part joyless
II
He had none the less to confess to this friend that evening that he knew almost
nothing about her and it was a deficiency that Waymarsh even with his memory
refreshed by contact by her own prompt and lucid allusions and enquiries by
their having publicly partaken of dinner in her company and by another stroll
to which she was not a stranger out into the town to look at the cathedral by
moonlight it was a blank that the resident of Milrose though admitting
acquaintance with the Munsters professed himself unable to fill He had no
recollection of Miss Gostrey and two or three questions that she put to him
about those members of his circle had to Strethers observation the same
effect he himself had already more directly felt the effect of appearing to
place all knowledge for the time on this original womans side It interested
him indeed to mark the limits of any such relation for her with his friend as
there could possibly be a question of and it particularly struck him that they
were to be marked altogether in Waymarshs quarter This added to his own sense
of having gone far with her gave him an early illustration of a much shorter
course There was a certitude he immediately grasped a conviction that
Waymarsh would quite fail as it were and on whatever degree of acquaintance
to profit by her
There had been after the first interchange among the three a talk of some
five minutes in the hall and then the two men had adjourned to the garden Miss
Gostrey for the time disappearing Strether in due course accompanied his friend
to the room he had bespoken and had before going out scrupulously visited
where at the end of another halfhour he had no less discreetly left him On
leaving him he repaired straight to his own room but with the prompt effect of
feeling the compass of that chamber resented by his condition There he enjoyed
at once the first consequence of their reunion A place was too small for him
after it that had seemed large enough before He had awaited it with something
he would have been sorry have been almost ashamed not to recognise as emotion
yet with a tacit assumption at the same time that emotion would in the event
find itself relieved The actual oddity was that he was only more excited and
his excitement to which indeed he would have found it difficult instantly to
give a name brought him once more downstairs and caused him for some minutes
vaguely to wander He went once more to the garden he looked into the public
room found Miss Gostrey writing letters and backed out he roamed fidgeted and
wasted time but he was to have his more intimate session with his friend before
the evening closed
It was late not till Strether had spent an hour upstairs with him that
this subject consented to betake himself to doubtful rest Dinner and the
subsequent stroll by moonlight a dream on Strethers part of romantic
effects rather prosaically merged in a mere missing of thicker coats had
measurably intervened and this midnight conference was the result of Waymarshs
having when they were free as he put it of their fashionable friend found
the smokingroom not quite what he wanted and yet bed what he wanted less His
most frequent form of words was that he knew himself and they were applied on
this occasion to his certainty of not sleeping He knew himself well enough to
know that he should have a night of prowling unless he should succeed as a
preliminary in getting prodigiously tired If the effort directed to this end
involved till a late hour the presence of Strether consisted that is in the
detention of the latter for full discourse there was yet an impression of
minor discipline involved for our friend in the picture Waymarsh made as he sat
in trousers and shirt on the edge of his couch With his long legs extended and
his large back much bent he nursed alternately for an almost incredible time
his elbows and his beard He struck his visitor as extremely as almost wilfully
uncomfortable yet what had this been for Strether from that first glimpse of
him disconcerted in the porch of the hotel but the predominant note The
discomfort was in a manner contagious as well as also in a manner inconsequent
and unfounded the visitor felt that unless he should get used to it or unless
Waymarsh himself should it would constitute a menace for his own prepared his
own already confirmed consciousness of the agreeable On their first going up
together to the room Strether had selected for him Waymarsh had looked it over
in silence and with a sigh that represented for his companion if not the habit
of disapprobation at least the despair of felicity and this look had recurred
to Strether as the key of much he had since observed Europe he had begun to
gather from these things had up to now rather failed of its message to him he
hadnt got into tune with it and had at the end of three months almost renounced
any such expectation
He really appeared at present to insist on that by just perching there with
the gas in his eyes This of itself somehow conveyed the futility of single
rectifications in a multiform failure He had a large handsome head and a large
sallow seamed face a striking significant physiognomic total the upper range
of which the great political brow the thick loose hair the dark fuliginous
eyes recalled even to a generation whose standard had dreadfully deviated the
impressive image familiar by engravings and busts of some great national
worthy of the earlier part of the midcentury He was of the personal type and
it was an element in the power and promise that in their early time Strether had
found in him of the American statesman the statesman trained in Congressional
halls of an elder day The legend had been in later years that as the lower
part of his face which was weak and slightly crooked spoiled the likeness
this was the real reason for the growth of his beard which might have seemed to
spoil it for those not in the secret He shook his mane he fixed with his
admirable eyes his auditor or his observer he wore no glasses and had a way
partly formidable yet also partly encouraging as from a representative to a
constituent of looking very hard at those who approached him He met you as if
you had knocked and he had bidden you enter Strether who hadnt seen him for
so long an interval apprehended him now with a freshness of taste and had
perhaps never done him such ideal justice The head was bigger the eyes finer
than they need have been for the career but that only meant after all that
the career was itself expressive What it expressed at midnight in the
gasglaring bedroom at Chester was that the subject of it had at the end of
years barely escaped by flight in time a general nervous collapse But this
very proof of the full life as the full life was understood at Milrose would
have made to Strethers imagination an element in which Waymarsh could have
floated easily had he only consented to float Alas nothing so little resembled
floating as the rigour with which on the edge of his bed he hugged his posture
of prolonged impermanence It suggested to his comrade something that always
when kept up worried him a person established in a railwaycoach with a
forward inclination It represented the angle at which poor Waymarsh was to sit
through the ordeal of Europe
Thanks to the stress of occupation the strain of professions the
absorption and embarrassment of each they had not at home during years before
this sudden brief and almost bewildering reign of comparative ease found so
much as a day for a meeting a fact that was in some degree an explanation of
the sharpness with which most of his friends features stood out to Strether
Those he had lost sight of since the early time came back to him others that it
was never possible to forget struck him now as sitting clustered and expectant
like a somewhat defiant familygroup on the doorstep of their residence The
room was narrow for its length and the occupant of the bed thrust so far a pair
of slippered feet that the visitor had almost to step over them in his recurrent
rebounds from his chair to fidget back and forth There were marks the friends
made on things to talk about and on things not to and one of the latter in
particular fell like the tap of chalk on the blackboard Married at thirty
Waymarsh had not lived with his wife for fifteen years and it came up vividly
between them in the glare of the gas that Strether wasnt to ask about her He
knew they were still separate and that she lived at hotels travelled in Europe
painted her face and wrote her husband abusive letters of not one of which to
a certainty that sufferer spared himself the perusal but he respected without
difficulty the cold twilight that had settled on this side of his companions
life It was a province in which mystery reigned and as to which Waymarsh had
never spoken the informing word Strether who wanted to do him the highest
justice wherever he could do it singularly admired him for the dignity of this
reserve and even counted it as one of the grounds grounds all handled and
numbered for ranking him in the range of their acquaintance as a success He
was a success Waymarsh in spite of overwork or prostration of sensible
shrinkage of his wifes letters and of his not liking Europe Strether would
have reckoned his own career less futile had he been able to put into it
anything so handsome as so much fine silence One might ones self easily have
left Mrs Waymarsh and one would assuredly have paid ones tribute to the ideal
in covering with that attitude the derision of having been left by her Her
husband had held his tongue and had made a large income and these were in
especial the achievements as to which Strether envied him Our friend had had
indeed on his side too a subject for silence which he fully appreciated but it
was a matter of a different sort and the figure of the income he had arrived at
had never been high enough to look any one in the face
»I dont know as I quite see what you require it for You dont appear sick
to speak of« It was of Europe Waymarsh thus finally spoke
»Well« said Strether who fell as much as possible into step »I guess I
dont feel sick now that Ive started But I had pretty well run down before I
did start«
Waymarsh raised his melancholy look »Aint you about up to your usual
average«
It was not quite pointedly sceptical but it seemed somehow a plea for the
purest veracity and it thereby affected our friend as the very voice of
Milrose He had long since made a mental distinction though never in truth
daring to betray it between the voice of Milrose and the voice even of
Woollett It was the former he felt that was most in the real tradition There
had been occasions in his past when the sound of it had reduced him to temporary
confusion and the present for some reason suddenly became such another It
was nevertheless no light matter that the very effect of his confusion should be
to make him again prevaricate »That description hardly does justice to a man to
whom it has done such a lot of good to see you«
Waymarsh fixed on his washingstand the silent detached stare with which
Milrose in person as it were might have marked the unexpectedness of a
compliment from Woollett and Strether for his part felt once more like
Woollett in person »I mean« his friend presently continued »that your
appearance isnt as bad as Ive seen it it compares favourably with what it was
when I last noticed it« On this appearance Waymarshs eyes yet failed to rest
it was almost as if they obeyed an instinct of propriety and the effect was
still stronger when always considering the basin and jug he added »Youve
filled out some since then«
»Im afraid I have« Strether laughed »one does fill out some with all one
takes in and Ive taken in I dare say more than Ive natural room for I was
dogtired when I sailed« It had the oddest sound of cheerfulness
»I was dogtired« his companion returned »when I arrived and its this
wild hunt for rest that takes all the life out of me The fact is Strether
and its a comfort to have you here at last to say it to though I dont know
after all that Ive really waited Ive told it to people Ive met in the cars
the fact is such a country as this aint my kind of country anyway There
aint a country Ive seen over here that does seem my kind Oh I dont say but
what there are plenty of pretty places and remarkable old things but the
trouble is that I dont seem to feel anywhere in tune Thats one of the reasons
why I suppose Ive gained so little I havent had the first sign of that lift I
was led to expect« With this he broke out more earnestly »Look here I want
to go back«
His eyes were all attached to Strethers now for he was one of the men who
fully face you when they talk of themselves This enabled his friend to look at
him hard and immediately to appear to the highest advantage in his eyes by doing
so »Thats a genial thing to say to a fellow who has come out on purpose to
meet you«
Nothing could have been finer on this than Waymarshs sombre glow »Have
you come out on purpose«
»Well very largely«
»I thought from the way you wrote there was something back of it«
Strether hesitated »Back of my desire to be with you«
»Back of your prostration«
Strether with a smile made more dim by a certain consciousness shook his
head »There are all the causes of it«
»And no particular cause that seemed most to drive you«
Our friend could at last conscientiously answer »Yes One There is a
matter that has had much to do with my coming out«
Waymarsh waited a little »Too private to mention«
»No not too private for you Only rather complicated«
»Well« said Waymarsh who had waited again »I may lose my mind over here
but I dont know as Ive done so yet«
»Oh you shall have the whole thing But not tonight«
Waymarsh seemed to sit stiffer and to hold his elbows tighter »Why not if
I cant sleep«
»Because my dear man I can«
»Then wheres your prostration«
»Just in that that I can put in eight hours« And Strether brought it out
that if Waymarsh didnt gain it was because he didnt go to bed the result of
which was in its order that to do the latter justice he permitted his friend
to insist on his really getting settled Strether with a kind coercive hand for
it assisted him to this consummation and again found his own part in their
relation auspiciously enlarged by the smaller touches of lowering the lamp and
seeing to a sufficiency of blanket It somehow ministered for him to indulgence
to feel Waymarsh who looked unnaturally big and black in bed as much tucked in
as a patient in a hospital and with his covering up to his chin as much
simplified by it He hovered in vague pity to be brief while his companion
challenged him out of the bedclothes »Is she really after you Is that whats
behind«
Strether felt an uneasiness at the direction taken by his companions
insight but he played a little at uncertainty »Behind my coming out«
»Behind your prostration or whatever Its generally felt you know that
she follows you up pretty close«
Strethers candour was never very far off »Oh it has occurred to you that
Im literally running away from Mrs Newsome«
»Well I havent known but what you are Youre a very attractive man
Strether Youve seen for yourself« said Waymarsh »what that lady downstairs
makes of it Unless indeed« he rambled on with an effect between the ironic and
the anxious »its you who are after her Is Mrs Newsome over here« He spoke
as with a droll dread of her
It made his friend though rather dimly smile »Dear no shes safe
thank goodness as I think I more and more feel at home She thought of
coming but she gave it up Ive come in a manner instead of her and come to
that extent for youre right in your inference on her business So you see
there is plenty of connexion«
Waymarsh continued to see at least all there was »Involving accordingly the
particular one Ive referred to«
Strether took another turn about the room giving a twitch to his
companions blanket and finally gaining the door His feeling was that of a
nurse who had earned personal rest by having made everything straight
»Involving more things than I can think of breaking ground on now But dont be
afraid you shall have them from me youll probably find yourself having quite
as much of them as you can do with I shall if we keep together very much
depend on your impression of some of them«
Waymarshs acknowledgement of this tribute was characteristically indirect
»You mean to say you dont believe we will keep together«
»I only glance at the danger« Strether paternally said »because when I
hear you wail to go back I seem to see you open up such possibilities of folly«
Waymarsh took it silent a little like a large snubbed child »What are
you going to do with me«
It was the very question Strether himself had put to Miss Gostrey and he
wondered if he had sounded like that But he at least could be more definite
»Im going to take you right down to London«
»Oh Ive been down to London« Waymarsh more softly moaned »Ive no use
Strether for anything down there«
»Well« said Strether goodhumouredly »I guess youve some use for me«
»So Ive got to go«
»Oh youve got to go further yet«
»Well« Waymarsh sighed »do your damnedest Only you will tell me before
you lead me on all the way «
Our friend had again so lost himself both for amusement and for contrition
in the wonder of whether he had made in his own challenge that afternoon such
another figure that he for an instant missed the thread »Tell you «
»Why what youve got on hand«
Strether hesitated »Why its such a matter as that even if I positively
wanted I shouldnt be able to keep it from you«
Waymarsh gloomily gazed »What does that mean then but that your trip is
just for her«
»For Mrs Newsome Oh it certainly is as I say Very much«
»Then why do you also say its for me«
Strether in impatience violently played with his latch »Its simple
enough Its for both of you«
Waymarsh at last turned over with a groan »Well I wont marry you«
»Neither when it comes to that « But the visitor had already laughed and
escaped
III
He had told Miss Gostrey he should probably take for departure with Waymarsh
some afternoon train and it thereupon in the morning appeared that this lady
had made her own plan for an earlier one She had breakfasted when Strether came
into the coffeeroom but Waymarsh not having yet emerged he was in time to
recall her to the terms of their understanding and to pronounce her discretion
overdone She was surely not to break away at the very moment she had created a
want He had met her as she rose from her little table in a window where with
the morning papers beside her she reminded him as he let her know of Major
Pendennis breakfasting at his club a compliment of which she professed a deep
appreciation and he detained her as pleadingly as if he had already and
notably under pressure of the visions of the night learned to be unable to do
without her She must teach him at all events before she went to order
breakfast as breakfast was ordered in Europe and she must especially sustain
him in the problem of ordering for Waymarsh The latter had laid upon his
friend by desperate sounds through the door of his room dreadful divined
responsibilities in respect to beefsteak and oranges responsibilities which
Miss Gostrey took over with an alertness of action that matched her quick
intelligence She had before this weaned the expatriated from traditions
compared with which the matutinal beefsteak was but the creature of an hour and
it was not for her with some of her memories to falter in the path though she
freely enough declared on reflexion that there was always in such cases a
choice of opposed policies »There are times when to give them their head you
know «
They had gone to wait together in the garden for the dressing of the meal
and Strether found her more suggestive than ever »Well what«
»Is to bring about for them such a complexity of relations unless indeed
we call it a simplicity that the situation has to wind itself up They want
to go back«
»And you want them to go« Strether gaily concluded
»I always want them to go and I send them as fast as I can«
»Oh I know you take them to Liverpool«
»Any port will serve in a storm Im with all my other functions an
agent for repatriation I want to repeople our stricken country What will
become of it else I want to discourage others«
The ordered English garden in the freshness of the day was delightful to
Strether who liked the sound under his feet of the tight fine gravel packed
with the chronic damp and who had the idlest eye for the deep smoothness of
turf and the clean curves of paths »Other people«
»Other countries Other people yes I want to encourage our own«
Strether wondered »Not to come Why then do you meet them since it
doesnt appear to be to stop them«
»Oh that they shouldnt come is as yet too much to ask What I attend to is
that they come quickly and return still more so I meet them to help it to be
over as soon as possible and though I dont stop them Ive my way of putting
them through Thats my little system and if you want to know« said Maria
Gostrey »its my real secret my innermost mission and use I only seem you
see to beguile and approve but Ive thought it all out and Im working all the
while underground I cant perhaps quite give you my formula but I think that
practically I succeed I send you back spent So you stay back Passed through
my hands «
»We dont turn up again« The further she went the further he always saw
himself able to follow »I dont want your formula I feel quite enough as I
hinted yesterday your abysses Spent« he echoed »If thats how youre
arranging so subtly to send me I thank you for the warning«
For a minute amid the pleasantness poetry in tariffed items but all the
more for guests already convicted a challenge to consumption they smiled at
each other in confirmed fellowship »Do you call it subtly Its a plain poor
tale Besides youre a special case«
»Oh special cases thats weak« She was weak enough further still to
defer her journey and agree to accompany the gentlemen on their own might a
separate carriage mark her independence though it was in spite of this to
befall after luncheon that she went off alone and that with a tryst taken for a
day of her company in London they lingered another night She had during the
morning spent in a way that he was to remember later on as the very climax of
his foretaste as warm with presentiments with what he would have called
collapses had all sorts of things out with Strether and among them the fact
that though there was never a moment of her life when she wasnt due somewhere
there was yet scarce a perfidy to others of which she wasnt capable for his
sake She explained moreover that wherever she happened to be she found a
dropped thread to pick up a ragged edge to repair some familiar appetite in
ambush jumping out as she approached yet appeasable with a temporary biscuit
It became on her taking the risk of the deviation imposed on him by her
insidious arrangement of his morning meal a point of honour for her not to fail
with Waymarsh of the larger success too and her subsequent boast to Strether
was that she had made their friend fare and quite without his knowing what was
the matter as Major Pendennis would have fared at the Megatherium She had
made him breakfast like a gentleman and it was nothing she forcibly asserted
to what she would yet make him do She made him participate in the slow
reiterated ramble with which for Strether the new day amply filled itself and
it was by her art that he somehow had the air on the ramparts and in the Rows
of carrying a point of his own
The three strolled and stared and gossiped or at least the two did the
case really yielding for their comrade if analysed but the element of stricken
silence This element indeed affected Strether as charged with audible
rumblings but he was conscious of the care of taking it explicitly as a sign of
pleasant peace He wouldnt appeal too much for that provoked stiffness yet he
wouldnt be too freely tacit for that suggested giving up Waymarsh himself
adhered to an ambiguous dumbness that might have represented either the growth
of a perception or the despair of one and at times and in places where the
lowbrowed galleries were darkest the opposite gables queerest the
solicitations of every kind densest the others caught him fixing hard some
object of minor interest fixing even at moments nothing discernible as if he
were indulging it with a truce When he met Strethers eye on such occasions he
looked guilty and furtive fell the next minute into some attitude of
retractation Our friend couldnt show him the right things for fear of
provoking some total renouncement and was tempted even to show him the wrong in
order to make him differ with triumph There were moments when he himself felt
shy of professing the full sweetness of the taste of leisure and there were
others when he found himself feeling as if his passages of interchange with the
lady at his side might fall upon the third member of their party very much as
Mr Burchell at Dr Primroses fireside was influenced by the high flights of
the visitors from London The smallest things so arrested and amused him that he
repeatedly almost apologised brought up afresh in explanation his plea of a
previous grind He was aware at the same time that his grind had been as nothing
to Waymarshs and he repeatedly confessed that to cover his frivolity he was
doing his best for his previous virtue Do what he might in any case his
previous virtue was still there and it seemed fairly to stare at him out of the
windows of shops that were not as the shops of Woollett fairly to make him want
things that he shouldnt know what to do with It was by the oddest the least
admissible of laws demoralising him now and the way it boldly took was to make
him want more wants These first walks in Europe were in fact a kind of finely
lurid intimation of what one might find at the end of that process Had he come
back after long years in something already so like the evening of life only to
be exposed to it It was at all events over the shopwindows that he made with
Waymarsh most free though it would have been easier had not the latter most
sensibly yielded to the appeal of the merely useful trades He pierced with his
sombre detachment the plateglass of ironmongers and saddlers while Strether
flaunted an affinity with the dealers in stamped letterpaper and in smart
neckties Strether was in fact recurrently shameless in the presence of the
tailors though it was just over the heads of the tailors that his countryman
most loftily looked This gave Miss Gostrey a grasped opportunity to back up
Waymarsh at his expense The weary lawyer it was unmistakeable had a
conception of dress but that in view of some of the features of the effect
produced was just what made the danger of insistence on it Strether wondered
if he by this time thought Miss Gostrey less fashionable or Lambert Strether
more so and it appeared probable that most of the remarks exchanged between
this latter pair about passers figures faces personal types exemplified in
their degree the disposition to talk as society talked
Was what was happening to himself then was what already had happened
really that a woman of fashion was floating him into society and that an old
friend deserted on the brink was watching the force of the current When the
woman of fashion permitted Strether as she permitted him at the most the
purchase of a pair of gloves the terms she made about it the prohibition of
neckties and other items till she should be able to guide him through the
Burlington Arcade were such as to fall upon a sensitive ear as a challenge to
just imputations Miss Gostrey was such a woman of fashion as could make without
a symptom of vulgar blinking an appointment for the Burlington Arcade Mere
discriminations about a pair of gloves could thus at any rate represent always
for such sensitive ears as were in question possibilities of something that
Strether could make a mark against only as the peril of apparent wantonness He
had quite the consciousness of his new friend for their companion that he
might have had of a Jesuit in petticoats a representative of the recruiting
interests of the Catholic Church The Catholic Church for Waymarsh that was
to say the enemy the monster of bulging eyes and farreaching quivering groping
tentacles was exactly society exactly the multiplication of shibboleths
exactly the discrimination of types and tones exactly the wicked old Rows of
Chester rank with feudalism exactly in short Europe
There was light for observation however in an incident that occurred just
before they turned back to luncheon Waymarsh had been for a quarter of an hour
exceptionally mute and distant and something or other Strether was never to
make out exactly what proved as it were too much for him after his comrades
had stood for three minutes taking in while they leaned on an old balustrade
that guarded the edge of the Row a particularly crooked and huddled
streetview »He thinks us sophisticated he thinks us worldly he thinks us
wicked he thinks us all sorts of queer things« Strether reflected for
wondrous were the vague quantities our friend had within a couple of short days
acquired the habit of conveniently and conclusively lumping together There
seemed moreover a direct connexion between some such inference and a sudden grim
dash taken by Waymarsh to the opposite side This movement was startlingly
sudden and his companions at first supposed him to have espied to be pursuing
the glimpse of an acquaintance They next made out however that an open door
had instantly received him and they then recognised him as engulfed in the
establishment of a jeweller behind whose glittering front he was lost to view
The fact had somehow the note of a demonstration and it left each of the others
to show a face almost of fear But Miss Gostrey broke into a laugh »Whats the
matter with him«
»Well« said Strether »he cant stand it«
»But cant stand what«
»Anything Europe«
»Then how will that jeweller help him«
Strether seemed to make it out from their position between the interstices
of arrayed watches of closehung dangling gewgaws »Youll see«
»Ah thats just what if he buys anything Im afraid of that I shall see
something rather dreadful«
Strether studied the finer appearances »He may buy everything«
»Then dont you think we ought to follow him«
»Not for worlds Besides we cant Were paralysed We exchange a long
scared look we publicly tremble The thing is you see we realise He has
struck for freedom«
She wondered but she laughed »Ah what a price to pay And I was preparing
some for him so cheap«
»No no« Strether went on frankly amused now »dont call it that the
kind of freedom you deal in is dear« Then as to justify himself »Am I not in
my way trying it Its this«
»Being here you mean with me«
»Yes and talking to you as I do Ive known you a few hours and Ive known
him all my life so that if the ease I thus take with you about him isnt
magnificent« and the thought of it held him a moment »why its rather base«
»Its magnificent« said Miss Gostrey to make an end of it »And you should
hear« she added »the ease I take and I above all intend to take with Mr
Waymarsh«
Strether thought »About me Ah thats no equivalent The equivalent would
be Waymarshs himself serving me up his remorseless analysis of me And hell
never do that« he was sadly clear »Hell never remorselessly analyse me« He
quite held her with the authority of this »Hell never say a word to you about
me«
She took it in she did it justice yet after an instant her reason her
restless irony disposed of it »Of course he wont For what do you take
people that theyre able to say words about anything able remorselessly to
analyse There are not many like you and me It will be only because hes too
stupid«
It stirred in her friend a sceptical echo which was at the same time the
protest of the faith of years »Waymarsh stupid«
»Compared with you«
Strether had still his eyes on the jewellers front and he waited a moment
to answer »Hes a success of a kind that I havent approached«
»Do you mean he has made money«
»He makes it to my belief And I« said Strether »though with a back
quite as bent have never made anything Im a perfectly equipped failure«
He feared an instant shed ask him if he meant he was poor and he was glad
she didnt for he really didnt know to what the truth on this unpleasant point
mightnt have prompted her She only however confirmed his assertion »Thank
goodness youre a failure its why I so distinguish you Anything else today
is too hideous Look about you look at the successes Would you be one on
your honour Look moreover« she continued »at me«
For a little accordingly their eyes met »I see« Strether returned »You
too are out of it«
»The superiority you discern in me« she concurred »announces my futility
If you knew« she sighed »the dreams of my youth But our realities are what
has brought us together Were beaten brothers in arms«
He smiled at her kindly enough but he shook his head »It doesnt alter the
fact that youre expensive Youve cost me already «
But he had hung fire »Cost you what«
»Well my past in one great lump But no matter« he laughed »Ill pay
with my last penny«
Her attention had unfortunately now been engaged by their comrades return
for Waymarsh met their view as he came out of his shop »I hope he hasnt paid«
she said »with his last though Im convinced he has been splendid and has
been so for you«
»Ah no not that«
»Then for me«
»Quite as little« Waymarsh was by this time near enough to show signs his
friend could read though he seemed to look almost carefully at nothing in
particular
»Then for himself«
»For nobody For nothing For freedom«
»But what has freedom to do with it«
Strethers answer was indirect »To be as good as you and me But
different«
She had had time to take in their companions face and with it as such
things were easy for her she took in all »Different yes But better«
If Waymarsh was sombre he was also indeed almost sublime He told them
nothing left his absence unexplained and though they were convinced he had
made some extraordinary purchase they were never to learn its nature He only
glowered grandly at the tops of the old gables »Its the sacred rage« Strether
had had further time to say and this sacred rage was to become between them
for convenient comprehension the description of one of his periodical
necessities It was Strether who eventually contended that it did make him
better than they But by that time Miss Gostrey was convinced that she didnt
want to be better than Strether
Book Second
I
Those occasions on which Strether was in association with the exile from
Milrose to see the sacred rage glimmer through would doubtless have their due
periodicity but our friend had meanwhile to find names for many other matters
On no evening of his life perhaps as he reflected had he had to supply so many
as on the third of his short stay in London an evening spent by Miss Gostreys
side at one of the theatres to which he had found himself transported without
his own hand raised on the mere expression of a conscientious wonder She knew
her theatre she knew her play as she had triumphantly known three days
running everything else and the moment filled to the brim for her companion
that apprehension of the interesting which whether or no the interesting
happened to filter through his guide strained now to its limits his brief
opportunity Waymarsh hadnt come with them he had seen plays enough he
signified before Strether had joined him an affirmation that had its full
force when his friend ascertained by questions that he had seen two and a
circus Questions as to what he had seen had on him indeed an effect only less
favourable than questions as to what he hadnt He liked the former to be
discriminated but how could it be done Strether asked of their constant
counsellor without discriminating the latter
Miss Gostrey had dined with him at his hotel face to face over a small
table on which the lighted candles had rosecoloured shades and the
rosecoloured shades and the small table and the soft fragrance of the lady
had anything to his mere sense ever been so soft were so many touches in he
scarce knew what positive high picture He had been to the theatre even to the
opera in Boston with Mrs Newsome more than once acting as her only escort
but there had been no little confronted dinner no pink lights no whiff of
vague sweetness as a preliminary one of the results of which was that at
present mildly rueful though with a sharpish accent he actually asked himself
why there hadnt There was much the same difference in his impression of the
noticed state of his companion whose dress was cut down as he believed the
term to be in respect to shoulders and bosom in a manner quite other than Mrs
Newsomes and who wore round her throat a broad red velvet band with an antique
jewel he was rather complacently sure it was antique attached to it in
front Mrs Newsomes dress was never in any degree cut down and she never wore
round her throat a broad red velvet band if she had moreover would it ever
have served so to carry on and complicate as he now almost felt his vision
It would have been absurd of him to trace into ramifications the effect of
the ribbon from which Miss Gostreys trinket depended had he not for the hour
at the best been so given over to uncontrolled perceptions What was it but an
uncontrolled perception that his friends velvet band somehow added in her
appearance to the value of every other item to that of her smile and of the
way she carried her head to that of her complexion of her lips her teeth her
eyes her hair What certainly had a man conscious of a mans work in the
world to do with red velvet bands He wouldnt for anything have so exposed
himself as to tell Miss Gostrey how much he liked hers yet he had none the less
not only caught himself in the act frivolous no doubt idiotic and above all
unexpected of liking it he had in addition taken it as a startingpoint for
fresh backward fresh forward fresh lateral flights The manner in which Mrs
Newsomes throat was encircled suddenly represented for him in an alien order
almost as many things as the manner in which Miss Gostreys was Mrs Newsome
wore at operatic hours a black silk dress very handsome he knew it was
handsome and an ornament that his memory was able further to identify as a
ruche He had his association indeed with the ruche but it was rather
imperfectly romantic He had once said to the wearer and it was as free a
remark as he had ever made to her that she looked with her ruff and other
matters like Queen Elizabeth and it had after this in truth been his fancy
that as a consequence of that tenderness and an acceptance of the idea the
form of this special tribute to the frill had grown slightly more marked The
connexion as he sat there and let his imagination roam was to strike him as
vaguely pathetic but there it all was and pathetic was doubtless in the
conditions the best thing it could possibly be It had assuredly existed at any
rate for it seemed now to come over him that no gentleman of his age at
Woollett could ever to a lady of Mrs Newsomes which was not much less than
his have embarked on such a simile
All sorts of things in fact now seemed to come over him comparatively few
of which his chronicler can hope for space to mention It came over him for
instance that Miss Gostrey looked perhaps like Mary Stuart Lambert Strether had
a candour of fancy which could rest for an instant gratified in such an
antithesis It came over him that never before no literally never had a
lady dined with him at a public place before going to the play The publicity of
the place was just in the matter for Strether the rare strange thing it
affected him almost as the achievement of privacy might have affected a man of a
different experience He had married in the faraway years so young as to have
missed the time natural in Boston for taking girls to the Museum and it was
absolutely true of him that even after the close of the period of conscious
detachment occupying the centre of his life the grey middle desert of the two
deaths that of his wife and that ten years later of his boy he had never
taken any one anywhere It came over him in especial though the monition had
as happened already sounded fitfully gleamed in other forms that the
business he had come out on hadnt yet been so brought home to him as by the
sight of the people about him She gave him the impression his friend at
first more straight than he got it for himself gave it simply by saying with
offhand illumination »Oh yes theyre types« but after he had taken it he
made to the full his own use of it both while he kept silence for the four acts
and while he talked in the intervals It was an evening it was a world of
types and this was a connexion above all in which the figures and faces in the
stalls were interchangeable with those on the stage
He felt as if the play itself penetrated him with the naked elbow of his
neighbour a great stripped handsome redhaired lady who conversed with a
gentleman on her other side in stray dissyllables which had for his ear in the
oddest way in the world so much sound that he wondered they hadnt more sense
and he recognised by the same law beyond the footlights what he was pleased to
take for the very flush of English life He had distracted drops in which he
couldnt have said if it were actors or auditors who were most true and the
upshot of which each time was the consciousness of new contacts However he
viewed his job it was types he should have to tackle Those before him and
around him were not as the types of Woollett where for that matter it had
begun to seem to him that there must only have been the male and the female
These made two exactly even with the individual varieties Here on the other
hand apart from the personal and the sexual range which might be greater or
less a series of strong stamps had been applied as it were from without
stamps that his observation played with as before a glass case on a table it
might have passed from medal to medal and from copper to gold It befell that in
the drama precisely there was a bad woman in a yellow frock who made a pleasant
weak goodlooking young man in perpetual evening dress do the most dreadful
things Strether felt himself on the whole not afraid of the yellow frock but
he was vaguely anxious over a certain kindness into which he found himself
drifting for its victim He hadnt come out he reminded himself to be too
kind or indeed to be kind at all to Chadwick Newsome Would Chad also be in
perpetual evening dress He somehow rather hoped it it seemed so to add to
this young mans general amenability though he wondered too if to fight him
with his own weapons he himself a thought almost startling would have
likewise to be This young man furthermore would have been much more easy to
handle at least for him than appeared probable in respect to Chad
It came up for him with Miss Gostrey that there were things of which she
would really perhaps after all have heard and she admitted when a little
pressed that she was never quite sure of what she heard as distinguished from
things such as on occasions like the present she only extravagantly guessed
»I seem with this freedom you see to have guessed Mr Chad Hes a young man
on whose head high hopes are placed at Woollett a young man a wicked woman has
got hold of and whom his family over there have sent you out to rescue Youve
accepted the mission of separating him from the wicked woman Are you quite sure
shes very bad for him«
Something in his manner showed it as quite pulling him up »Of course we
are Wouldnt you be«
»Oh I dont know One never does does one beforehand One can only
judge on the facts Yours are quite new to me Im really not in the least as
you see in possession of them so it will be awfully interesting to have them
from you If youre satisfied thats all thats required I mean if youre sure
you are sure sure it wont do«
»That he should lead such a life Rather«
»Oh but I dont know you see about his life youve not told me about his
life She may be charming his life«
»Charming« Strether stared before him »Shes base venal out of the
streets«
»I see And he «
»Chad wretched boy«
»Of what type and temper is he« she went on as Strether had lapsed
»Well the obstinate« It was as if for a moment he had been going to say
more and had then controlled himself
That was scarce what she wished »Do you like him«
This time he was prompt »No How can I«
»Do you mean because of your being so saddled with him«
»Im thinking of his mother« said Strether after a moment »He has darkened
her admirable life« He spoke with austerity »He has worried her half to
death«
»Oh thats of course odious« She had a pause as if for renewed emphasis of
this truth but it ended on another note »Is her life very admirable«
»Extraordinarily«
There was so much in the tone that Miss Gostrey had to devote another pause
to the appreciation of it »And has he only her I dont mean the bad woman in
Paris« she quickly added »for I assure you I shouldnt even at the best be
disposed to allow him more than one But has he only his mother«
»He has also a sister older than himself and married and theyre both
remarkably fine women«
»Very handsome you mean«
This promptitude almost as he might have thought this precipitation
gave him a brief drop but he came up again »Mrs Newsome I think is
handsome though shes not of course with a son of twentyeight and a daughter
of thirty in her very first youth She married however extremely young«
»And is wonderful« Miss Gostrey asked »for her age«
Strether seemed to feel with a certain disquiet the pressure of it »I dont
say shes wonderful Or rather« he went on the next moment »I do say it Its
exactly what she is wonderful But I wasnt thinking of her appearance« he
explained »striking as that doubtless is I was thinking well of many other
things« He seemed to look at these as if to mention some of them then took
pulling himself up another turn »About Mrs Pocock people may differ«
»Is that the daughters name Pocock«
»Thats the daughters name« Strether sturdily confessed
»And people may differ you mean about her beauty«
»About everything«
»But you admire her«
He gave his friend a glance as to show how he could bear this »Im perhaps
a little afraid of her«
»Oh« said Miss Gostrey »I see her from here You may say then I see very
fast and very far but Ive already shown you I do The young man and the two
ladies« she went on »are at any rate all the family«
»Quite all His father has been dead ten years and theres no brother nor
any other sister Theyd do« said Strether »anything in the world for him«
»And youd do anything in the world for them«
He shifted again she had made it perhaps just a shade too affirmative for
his nerves »Oh I dont know«
»Youd do at any rate this and the anything theyd do is represented by
their making you do it«
»Ah they couldnt have come either of them Theyre very busy people and
Mrs Newsome in particular has a large full life Shes moreover highly nervous
and not at all strong«
»You mean shes an American invalid«
He carefully distinguished »Theres nothing she likes less than to be
called one but she would consent to be one of those things I think« he
laughed »if it were the only way to be the other«
»Consent to be an American in order to be an invalid«
»No« said Strether »the other way round Shes at any rate delicate
sensitive highstrung She puts so much of herself into everything «
Ah Maria knew these things »That she has nothing left for anything else Of
course she hasnt To whom do you say it Highstrung Dont I spend my life
for them jamming down the pedal I see moreover how it has told on you«
Strether took this more lightly »Oh I jam down the pedal too«
»Well« she lucidly returned »we must from this moment bear on it together
with all our might« And she forged ahead »Have they money«
But it was as if while her energetic image still held him her enquiry fell
short »Mrs Newsome« he wished further to explain »hasnt moreover your
courage on the question of contact If she had come it would have been to see
the person herself«
»The woman Ah but thats courage«
»No its exaltation which is a very different thing Courage« he
however accommodatingly threw out »is what you have«
She shook her head »You say that only to patch me up to cover the nudity
of my want of exaltation Ive neither the one nor the other Ive mere battered
indifference I see that what you mean« Miss Gostrey pursued »is that if your
friend had come she would take great views and the great views to put it
simply would be too much for her«
Strether looked amused at her notion of the simple but he adopted her
formula »Everythings too much for her«
»Ah then such a service as this of yours «
»Is more for her than anything else Yes far more But so long as it isnt
too much for me «
»Her condition doesnt matter Surely not we leave her condition out we
take it that is for granted I see it her condition as behind and beneath
you yet at the same time I see it as bearing you up«
»Oh it does bear me up« Strether laughed
»Well then as yours bears me nothing mores needed« With which she put
again her question »Has Mrs Newsome money«
This time he heeded »Oh plenty Thats the root of the evil Theres money
to very large amounts in the concern Chad has had the free use of a great
deal But if hell pull himself together and come home all the same hell find
his account in it«
She had listened with all her interest »And I hope to goodness youll find
yours«
»Hell take up his definite material reward« said Strether without
acknowledgement of this »Hes at the parting of the ways He can come into the
business now he cant come later«
»Is there a business«
»Lord yes a big brave bouncing business A roaring trade«
»A great shop«
»Yes a workshop a great production a great industry The concerns a
manufacture and a manufacture that if its only properly looked after may
well be on the way to become a monopoly Its a little thing they make make
better it appears than other people can or than other people at any rate
do Mr Newsome being a man of ideas at least in that particular line«
Strether explained »put them on it with great effect and gave the place
altogether in his time an immense lift«
»Its a place in itself«
»Well quite a number of buildings almost a little industrial colony But
above all its a thing The article produced«
»And what is the article produced«
Strether looked about him as in slight reluctance to say then the curtain
which he saw about to rise came to his aid »Ill tell you next time« But when
the next time came he only said hed tell her later on after they should have
left the theatre for she had immediately reverted to their topic and even for
himself the picture of the stage was now overlaid with another image His
postponements however made her wonder wonder if the article referred to were
anything bad And she explained that she meant improper or ridiculous or wrong
But Strether so far as that went could satisfy her »Unmentionable Oh no we
constantly talk of it we are quite familiar and brazen about it Only as a
small trivial rather ridiculous object of the commonest domestic use its
just wanting in what shall I say Well dignity or the least approach to
distinction Right here therefore with everything about us so grand « In
short he shrank
»Its a false note«
»Sadly Its vulgar«
»But surely not vulgarer than this« Then on his wondering as she herself
had done »Than everything about us« She seemed a trifle irritated »What do
you take this for«
»Why for comparatively divine«
»This dreadful London theatre Its impossible if you really want to know«
»Oh then« laughed Strether »I dont really want to know«
It made between them a pause which she however still fascinated by the
mystery of the production at Woollett presently broke »Rather ridiculous
Clothespins Saleratus Shoepolish«
It brought him round »No you dont even burn I dont think you know
youll guess it«
»How then can I judge how vulgar it is«
»Youll judge when I do tell you« and he persuaded her to patience But it
may even now frankly be mentioned that he in the sequel never was to tell her
He actually never did so and it moreover oddly occurred that by the law within
her of the incalculable her desire for the information dropped and her
attitude to the question converted itself into a positive cultivation of
ignorance In ignorance she could humour her fancy and that proved a useful
freedom She could treat the little nameless object as indeed unnameable she
could make their abstention enormously definite There might indeed have been
for Strether the portent of this in what she next said
»Is it perhaps then because its so bad because your industry as you call
it is so vulgar that Mr Chad wont come back Does he feel the taint Is he
staying away not to be mixed up in it«
»Oh« Strether laughed »it wouldnt appear would it that he feels
taints Hes glad enough of the money from it and the moneys his whole basis
Theres appreciation in that I mean as to the allowance his mother has
hitherto made him She has of course the resource of cutting this allowance off
but even then he has unfortunately and on no small scale his independent
supply money left him by his grandfather her own father«
»Wouldnt the fact you mention then« Miss Gostrey asked »make it just more
easy for him to be particular Isnt he conceivable as fastidious about the
source the apparent and public source of his income«
Strether was able quite goodhumouredly to entertain the proposition »The
source of his grandfathers wealth and thereby of his own share in it was
not particularly noble«
»And what source was it«
Strether cast about »Well practices«
»In business Infamies He was an old swindler«
»Oh« he said with more emphasis than spirit »I shant describe him nor
narrate his exploits«
»Lord what abysses And the late Mr Newsome then«
»Well what about him«
»Was he like the grandfather«
»No he was on the other side of the house And he was different«
Miss Gostrey kept it up »Better«
Her friend for a moment hung fire »No«
Her comment on his hesitation was scarce the less marked for being mute
»Thank you Now dont you see« she went on »why the boy doesnt come home
Hes drowning his shame«
»His shame What shame«
»What shame Comment donc The shame«
»But where and when« Strether asked »is the shame where is any shame
today The men I speak of they did as every one does and besides being
ancient history it was all a matter of appreciation«
She showed how she understood »Mrs Newsome has appreciated«
»Ah I cant speak for her«
»In the midst of such doings and as I understand you profiting by them
she at least has remained exquisite«
»Oh I cant talk of her« Strether said
»I thought she was just what you could talk of You dont trust me« Miss
Gostrey after a moment declared
It had its effect »Well her money is spent her life conceived and carried
on with a large beneficence «
»Thats a kind of expiation of wrongs Gracious« she added before he could
speak »how intensely you make me see her«
»If you see her« Strether dropped »its all thats necessary«
She really seemed to have her »I feel that She is in spite of everything
handsome«
This at least enlivened him »What do you mean by everything«
»Well I mean you« With which she had one of her swift changes of ground
»You say the concern needs looking after but doesnt Mrs Newsome look after
it«
»So far as possible Shes wonderfully able but its not her affair and
her lifes a good deal overcharged She has many many things«
»And you also«
»Oh yes Ive many too if you will«
»I see But what I mean is« Miss Gostrey amended »do you also look after
the business«
»Oh no I dont touch the business«
»Only everything else«
»Well yes some things«
»As for instance «
Strether obligingly thought »Well the Review«
»The Review you have a Review«
»Certainly Woollett has a Review which Mrs Newsome for the most part
magnificently pays for and which I not at all magnificently edit My names on
the cover« Strether pursued »and Im really rather disappointed and hurt that
you seem never to have heard of it«
She neglected for a moment this grievance »And what kind of a Review is
it«
His serenity was now completely restored »Well its green«
»Do you mean in political colour as they say here in thought«
»No I mean the covers green of the most lovely shade«
»And with Mrs Newsomes name on it too«
He waited a little »Oh as for that you must judge if she peeps out Shes
behind the whole thing but shes of a delicacy and a discretion «
Miss Gostrey took it all »Im sure She would be I dont underrate her
She must be rather a swell«
»Oh yes shes rather a swell«
»A Woollett swell bon I like the idea of a Woollett swell And you must
be rather one too to be so mixed up with her«
»Ah no« said Strether »thats not the way it works«
But she had already taken him up »The way it works you neednt tell me
is of course that you efface yourself«
»With my name on the cover« he lucidly objected
»Ah but you dont put it on for yourself«
»I beg your pardon thats exactly what I do put it on for Its exactly
the thing that Im reduced to doing for myself It seems to rescue a little you
see from the wreck of hopes and ambitions the refuseheap of disappointments
and failures my one presentable little scrap of an identity«
On this she looked at him as to say many things but what she at last simply
said was »She likes to see it there Youre the bigger swell of the two« she
immediately continued »because you think youre not one She thinks she is one
However« Miss Gostrey added »she thinks youre one too Youre at all events
the biggest she can get hold of« She embroidered she abounded »I dont say it
to interfere between you but on the day she gets hold of a bigger one «
Strether had thrown back his head as in silent mirth over something that struck
him in her audacity or felicity and her flight meanwhile was already higher
»Therefore close with her «
»Close with her« he asked as she seemed to hang poised
»Before you lose your chance«
Their eyes met over it »What do you mean by closing«
»And what do I mean by your chance Ill tell you when you tell me all the
things you dont Is it her greatest fad« she briskly pursued
»The Review« He seemed to wonder how he could best describe it This
resulted however but in a sketch »Its her tribute to the ideal«
»I see You go in for tremendous things«
»We go in for the unpopular side that is so far as we dare«
»And how far do you dare«
»Well she very far I much less I dont begin to have her faith She
provides« said Strether »three fourths of that And she provides as Ive
confided to you all the money«
It evoked somehow a vision of gold that held for a little Miss Gostreys
eyes and she looked as if she heard the bright dollars shovelled in »I hope
then you make a good thing «
»I never made a good thing« he at once returned
She just waited »Dont you call it a good thing to be loved«
»Oh were not loved Were not even hated Were only just sweetly ignored«
She had another pause »You dont trust me« she once more repeated
»Dont I when I lift the last veil tell you the very secret of the
prisonhouse«
Again she met his eyes but to the result that after an instant her own
turned away with impatience »You dont sell Oh Im glad of that« After which
however and before he could protest she was off again »Shes just a moral
swell«
He accepted gaily enough the definition »Yes I really think that
describes her«
But it had for his friend the oddest connexion »How does she do her hair«
He laughed out »Beautifully«
»Ah that doesnt tell me However it doesnt matter I know Its
tremendously neat a real reproach quite remarkably thick and without as yet
a single strand of white There«
He blushed for her realism but gaped at her truth »Youre the very deuce«
»What else should I be It was as the very deuce I pounced on you But dont
let it trouble you for everything but the very deuce at our age is a bore
and a delusion and even he himself after all but half a joy« With which on
a single sweep of her wing she resumed »You assist her to expiate which is
rather hard when youve yourself not sinned«
»Its she who hasnt sinned« Strether replied »Ive sinned the most«
»Ah« Miss Gostrey cynically laughed »what a picture of her Have you
robbed the widow and the orphan«
»Ive sinned enough« said Strether
»Enough for whom Enough for what«
»Well to be where I am«
»Thank you« They were disturbed at this moment by the passage between their
knees and the back of the seats before them of a gentleman who had been absent
during a part of the performance and who now returned for the close but the
interruption left Miss Gostrey time before the subsequent hush to express as a
sharp finality her sense of the moral of all their talk »I knew you had
something up your sleeve« This finality however left them in its turn at the
end of the play as disposed to hang back as if they had still much to say so
that they easily agreed to let every one go before them they found an interest
in waiting They made out from the lobby that the night had turned to rain yet
Miss Gostrey let her friend know that he wasnt to see her home He was simply
to put her by herself into a fourwheeler she liked so in London of wet
nights after wild pleasures thinking things over on the return in lonely
fourwheelers This was her great time she intimated for pulling herself
together The delays caused by the weather the struggle for vehicles at the
door gave them occasion to subside on a divan at the back of the vestibule and
just beyond the reach of the fresh damp gusts from the street Here Strethers
comrade resumed that free handling of the subject to which his own imagination
of it already owed so much »Does your young friend in Paris like you«
It had almost after the interval startled him »Oh I hope not Why should
he«
»Why shouldnt he« Miss Gostrey asked »That youre coming down on him need
have nothing to do with it«
»You see more in it« he presently returned »than I«
»Of course I see you in it«
»Well then you see more in me«
»Than you see in yourself Very likely Thats always ones right What I
was thinking of« she explained »is the possible particular effect on him of
his milieu«
»Oh his milieu « Strether really felt he could imagine it better now than
three hours before
»Do you mean it can only have been so lowering«
»Why thats my very startingpoint«
»Yes but you start so far back What do his letters say«
»Nothing He practically ignores us or spares us He doesnt write«
»I see But there are all the same« she went on »two quite distinct things
that given the wonderful place hes in may have happened to him One is that
he may have got brutalised The other is that he may have got refined«
Strether stared this was a novelty »Refined«
»Oh« she said quietly »there are refinements«
The way of it made him after looking at her break into a laugh »You have
them«
»As one of the signs« she continued in the same tone »they constitute
perhaps the worst«
He thought it over and his gravity returned »Is it a refinement not to
answer his mothers letters«
She appeared to have a scruple but she brought it out »Oh I should say the
greatest of all«
»Well« said Strether »Im quite content to let it as one of the signs
pass for the worst that I know he believes he can do what he likes with me«
This appeared to strike her »How do you know it«
»Oh Im sure of it I feel it in my bones«
»Feel he can do it«
»Feel that he believes he can It may come to the same thing« Strether
laughed
She wouldnt however have this »Nothing for you will ever come to the
same thing as anything else« And she understood what she meant it seemed
sufficiently to go straight on »You say that if he does break hell come in for
things at home«
»Quite positively Hell come in for a particular chance a chance that any
properly constituted young man would jump at The business has so developed that
an opening scarcely apparent three years ago but which his fathers will took
account of as in certain conditions possible and which under that will
attaches to Chads availing himself of it a large contingent advantage this
opening the conditions having come about now simply awaits him His mother has
kept it for him holding out against strong pressure till the last possible
moment It requires naturally as it carries with it a handsome part a large
share in profits his being on the spot and making a big effort for a big
result Thats what I mean by his chance If he misses it he comes in as you
say for nothing And to see that he doesnt miss it is in a word what Ive
come out for«
She let it all sink in »What youve come out for then is simply to render
him an immense service«
Well poor Strether was willing to take it so »Ah if you like«
»He stands as they say if you succeed with him to gain «
»Oh a lot of advantages« Strether had them clearly at his fingers ends
»By which you mean of course a lot of money«
»Well not only Im acting with a sense for him of other things too
Consideration and comfort and security the general safety of being anchored by
a strong chain He wants as I see him to be protected Protected I mean from
life«
»Ah voilà« her thought fitted with a click »From life What you really
want to get him home for is to marry him«
»Well thats about the size of it«
»Of course« she said »its rudimentary But to any one in particular«
He smiled at this looking a little more conscious »You get everything
out«
For a moment again their eyes met »You put everything in«
He acknowledged the tribute by telling her »To Mamie Pocock«
She wondered then gravely even exquisitely as if to make the oddity also
fit »His own niece«
»Oh you must yourself find a name for the relation His brotherinlaws
sister Mrs Jims sisterinlaw«
It seemed to have on Miss Gostrey a certain hardening effect »And who in
the worlds Mrs Jim«
»Chads sister who was Sarah Newsome Shes married didnt I mention it
to Jim Pocock«
»Ah yes« she tacitly replied but he had mentioned things Then however
with all the sound it could have »Who in the worlds Jim Pocock« she asked
»Why Sallys husband Thats the only way we distinguish people at
Woollett« he goodhumouredly explained
»And is it a great distinction being Sallys husband«
He considered »I think there can be scarcely a greater unless it may
become one in the future to be Chads wife«
»Then how do they distinguish you«
»They dont except as Ive told you by the green cover«
Once more their eyes met on it and she held him an instant »The green
cover wont nor will any cover avail you with me Youre of a depth of
duplicity« Still she could in her own large grasp of the real condone it »Is
Mamie a great parti«
»Oh the greatest we have our prettiest brightest girl«
Miss Gostrey seemed to fix the poor child »I know what they can be And
with money«
»Not perhaps with a great deal of that but with so much of everything else
that we dont miss it We dont miss money much you know« Strether added »in
general in America in pretty girls«
»No« she conceded »but I know also what you do sometimes miss And do
you« she asked »yourself admire her«
It was a question he indicated that there might be several ways of taking
but he decided after an instant for the humorous »Havent I sufficiently showed
you how I admire any pretty girl«
Her interest in his problem was by this time such that it scarce left her
freedom and she kept close to the facts »I supposed that at Woollett you
wanted them what shall I call it blameless I mean your young men for your
pretty girls«
»So did I« Strether confessed »But you strike there a curious fact the
fact that Woollett too accommodates itself to the spirit of the age and the
increasing mildness of manners Everything changes and I hold that our
situation precisely marks a date We should prefer them blameless but we have
to make the best of them as we find them Since the spirit of the age and the
increasing mildness send them so much more to Paris «
»Youve to take them back as they come When they do come Bon« Once more
she embraced it all but she had a moment of thought »Poor Chad«
»Ah« said Strether cheerfully »Mamie will save him«
She was looking away still in her vision and she spoke with impatience and
almost as if he hadnt understood her »Youll save him Thats wholl save
him«
»Oh but with Mamies aid Unless indeed you mean« he added »that I shall
effect so much more with yours«
It made her at last again look at him »Youll do more as youre so much
better than all of us put together«
»I think Im only better since Ive known you« Strether bravely returned
The depletion of the place the shrinkage of the crowd and now comparatively
quiet withdrawal of its last elements had already brought them nearer the door
and put them in relation with a messenger of whom he bespoke Miss Gostreys cab
But this left them a few minutes more which she was clearly in no mood not to
use »Youve spoken to me of what by your success Mr Chad stands to gain
But youve not spoken to me of what you do«
»Oh Ive nothing more to gain« said Strether very simply
She took it as even quite too simple »You mean youve got it all down
Youve been paid in advance«
»Ah dont talk about payment« he groaned
Something in the tone of it pulled her up but as their messenger still
delayed she had another chance and she put it in another way »What by failure
do you stand to lose«
He still however wouldnt have it »Nothing« he exclaimed and on the
messengers at this instant reappearing he was able to sink the subject in their
responsive advance When a few steps up the street under a lamp he had put
her into her fourwheeler and she had asked him if the man had called for him no
second conveyance he replied before the door was closed »You wont take me
with you«
»Not for the world«
»Then I shall walk«
»In the rain«
»I like the rain« said Strether »Goodnight«
She kept him a moment while his hand was on the door by not answering
after which she answered by repeating her question »What do you stand to lose«
Why the question now affected him as other he couldnt have said he could
only this time meet it otherwise »Everything«
»So I thought Then you shall succeed And to that end Im yours «
»Ah dear lady« he kindly breathed
»Till death« said Maria Gostrey »Goodnight«
II
Strether called his second morning in Paris on the bankers of the Rue Scribe
to whom his letter of credit was addressed and he made this visit attended by
Waymarsh in whose company he had crossed from London two days before They had
hastened to the Rue Scribe on the morrow of their arrival but Strether had not
then found the letters the hope of which prompted this errand He had had as yet
none at all hadnt expected them in London but had counted on several in
Paris and disconcerted now had presently strolled back to the Boulevard with
a sense of injury that he felt himself taking for as good a start as any other
It would serve this spur to his spirit he reflected as pausing at the top of
the street he looked up and down the great foreign avenue it would serve to
begin business with His idea was to begin business immediately and it did much
for him the rest of his day that the beginning of business awaited him He did
little else till night but ask himself what he should do if he hadnt
fortunately had so much to do but he put himself the question in many different
situations and connexions What carried him hither and yon was an admirable
theory that nothing he could do wouldnt be in some manner related to what he
fundamentally had on hand or would be should he happen to have a scruple
wasted for it He did happen to have a scruple a scruple about taking no
definite step till he should get letters but this reasoning carried it off A
single day to feel his feet he had felt them as yet only at Chester and in
London was he could consider none too much and having as he had often
privately expressed it Paris to reckon with he threw these hours of freshness
consciously into the reckoning They made it continually greater but that was
what it had best be if it was to be anything at all and he gave himself up till
far into the evening at the theatre and on the return after the theatre along
the bright congested Boulevard to feeling it grow Waymarsh had accompanied him
this time to the play and the two men had walked together as a first stage
from the Gymnase to the Café Riche into the crowded terrace of which
establishment the night or rather the morning for midnight had struck being
bland and populous they had wedged themselves for refreshment Waymarsh as a
result of some discussion with his friend had made a marked virtue of his
having now let himself go and there had been elements of impression in their
halfhour over their watered beerglasses that gave him his occasion for
conveying that he held this compromise with his stiffer self to have become
extreme He conveyed it for it was still after all his stiffer self who
gloomed out of the glare of the terrace in solemn silence and there was
indeed a great deal of critical silence every way between the companions even
till they gained the Place de lOpéra as to the character of their nocturnal
progress
This morning there were letters letters which had reached London
apparently all together the day of Strethers journey and had taken their time
to follow him so that after a controlled impulse to go into them in the
receptionroom of the bank which reminding him of the postoffice at Woollett
affected him as the abutment of some transatlantic bridge he slipped them into
the pocket of his loose grey overcoat with a sense of the felicity of carrying
them off Waymarsh who had had letters yesterday had had them again today
and Waymarsh suggested in this particular no controlled impulses The last one
he was at all events likely to be observed to struggle with was clearly that of
bringing to a premature close any visit to the Rue Scribe Strether had left him
there yesterday he wanted to see the papers and he had spent by what his
friend could make out a succession of hours with the papers He spoke of the
establishment with emphasis as a post of superior observation just as he
spoke generally of his actual damnable doom as a device for hiding from him what
was going on Europe was best described to his mind as an elaborate engine for
dissociating the confined American from that indispensable knowledge and was
accordingly only rendered bearable by these occasional stations of relief traps
for the arrest of wandering western airs Strether on his side set himself to
walk again he had his relief in his pocket and indeed much as he had desired
his budget the growth of restlessness might have been marked in him from the
moment he had assured himself of the superscription of most of the missives it
contained This restlessness became therefore his temporary law he knew he
should recognise as soon as see it the best place of all for settling down with
his chief correspondent He had for the next hour an accidental air of looking
for it in the windows of shops he came down the Rue de la Paix in the sun and
passing across the Tuileries and the river indulged more than once as if on
finding himself determined in a sudden pause before the bookstalls of the
opposite quay In the garden of the Tuileries he had lingered on two or three
spots to look it was as if the wonderful Paris spring had stayed him as he
roamed The prompt Paris morning struck its cheerful notes in a soft breeze
and a sprinkled smell in the light flit over the gardenfloor of bareheaded
girls with the buckled strap of oblong boxes in the type of ancient thrifty
persons basking betimes where terracewalls were warm in the bluefrocked
brasslabelled officialism of humble rakers and scrapers in the deep references
of a straightpacing priest or the sharp ones of a whitegaitered redlegged
soldier He watched little brisk figures figures whose movement was as the tick
of the great Paris clock take their smooth diagonal from point to point the
air had a taste as of something mixed with art something that presented nature
as a whitecapped masterchef The palace was gone Strether remembered the
palace and when he gazed into the irremediable void of its site the historic
sense in him might have been freely at play the play under which in Paris
indeed it so often winces like a touched nerve He filled out spaces with dim
symbols of scenes he caught the gleam of white statues at the base of which
with his letters out he could tilt back a strawbottomed chair But his drift
was for reasons to the other side and it floated him unspent up the Rue de
Seine and as far as the Luxembourg
In the Luxembourg Gardens he pulled up here at last he found his nook and
here on a penny chair from which terraces alleys vistas fountains little
trees in green tubs little women in white caps and shrill little girls at play
all sunnily composed together he passed an hour in which the cup of his
impressions seemed truly to overflow But a week had elapsed since he quitted
the ship and there were more things in his mind than so few days could account
for More than once during the time he had regarded himself as admonished but
the admonition this morning was formidably sharp It took as it hadnt done yet
the form of a question the question of what he was doing with such an
extraordinary sense of escape This sense was sharpest after he had read his
letters but that was also precisely why the question pressed Four of the
letters were from Mrs Newsome and none of them short she had lost no time had
followed on his heels while he moved so expressing herself that he now could
measure the probable frequency with which he should hear They would arrive it
would seem her communications at the rate of several a week he should be able
to count it might even prove on more than one by each mail If he had begun
yesterday with a small grievance he had therefore an opportunity to begin today
with its opposite He read the letters successively and slowly putting others
back into his pocket but keeping these for a long time afterwards gathered in
his lap He held them there lost in thought as if to prolong the presence of
what they gave him or as if at the least to assure them their part in the
constitution of some lucidity His friend wrote admirably and her tone was even
more in her style than in her voice he might almost for the hour have had to
come this distance to get its full carrying quality yet the plentitude of his
consciousness of difference consorted perfectly with the deepened intensity of
the connexion It was the difference the difference of being just where he was
and as he was that formed the escape this difference was so much greater than
he had dreamed it would be and what he finally sat there turning over was the
strange logic of his finding himself so free He felt it in a manner his duty to
think out his state to approve the process and when he came in fact to trace
the steps and add up the items they sufficiently accounted for the sum He had
never expected that was the truth of it again to find himself young and all
the years and other things it had taken to make him so were exactly his present
arithmetic He had to make sure of them to put his scruple to rest
It all sprang at bottom from the beauty of Mrs Newsomes desire that he
should be worried with nothing that was not of the essence of his task by
insisting that he should thoroughly intermit and break she had so provided for
his freedom that she would as it were have only herself to thank Strether
could not at this point indeed have completed his thought by the image of what
she might have to thank herself for the image at best of his own likeness
poor Lambert Strether washed up on the sunny strand by the waves of a single
day poor Lambert Strether thankful for breathingtime and stiffening himself
while he gasped There he was and with nothing in his aspect or his posture to
scandalise it was only true that if he had seen Mrs Newsome coming he would
instinctively have jumped up to walk away a little He would have come round and
back to her bravely but he would have had first to pull himself together She
abounded in news of the situation at home proved to him how perfectly she was
arranging for his absence told him who would take up this and who take up that
exactly where he had left it gave him in fact chapter and verse for the moral
that nothing would suffer It filled for him this tone of hers all the air
yet it struck him at the same time as the hum of vain things This latter effect
was what he tried to justify and with the success that grave though the
appearance he at last lighted on a form that was happy He arrived at it by the
inevitable recognition of his having been a fortnight before one of the weariest
of men If ever a man had come off tired Lambert Strether was that man and
hadnt it been distinctly on the ground of his fatigue that his wonderful friend
at home had so felt for him and so contrived It seemed to him somehow at these
instants that could he only maintain with sufficient firmness his grasp of that
truth it might become in a manner his compass and his helm What he wanted most
was some idea that would simplify and nothing would do this so much as the fact
that he was done for and finished If it had been in such a light that he had
just detected in his cup the dregs of youth that was a mere flaw of the surface
of his scheme He was so distinctly faggedout that it must serve precisely as
his convenience and if he could but consistently be good for little enough he
might do everything he wanted
Everything he wanted was comprised moreover in a single boon the common
unattainable art of taking things as they came He appeared to himself to have
given his best years to an active appreciation of the way they didnt come but
perhaps as they would seemingly here be things quite other this long ache
might at last drop to rest He could easily see that from the moment he should
accept the notion of his foredoomed collapse the last thing he would lack would
be reasons and memories Oh if he should do the sum no slate would hold the
figures The fact that he had failed as he considered in everything in each
relation and in half a dozen trades as he liked luxuriously to put it might
have made might still make for an empty present but it stood solidly for a
crowded past It had not been so much achievement missed a light yoke nor a
short road It was at present as if the backward picture had hung there the
long crooked course grey in the shadow of his solitude It had been a dreadful
cheerful sociable solitude a solitude of life or choice of community but
though there had been people enough all round it there had been but three or
four persons in it Waymarsh was one of these and the fact struck him just now
as marking the record Mrs Newsome was another and Miss Gostrey had of a
sudden shown signs of becoming a third Beyond behind them was the pale figure
of his real youth which held against its breast the two presences paler than
itself the young wife he had early lost and the young son he had stupidly
sacrificed He had again and again made out for himself that he might have kept
his little boy his little dull boy who had died at school of rapid diphtheria
if he had not in those years so insanely given himself to merely missing the
mother It was the soreness of his remorse that the child had in all likelihood
not really been dull had been dull as he had been banished and neglected
mainly because the father had been unwittingly selfish This was doubtless but
the secret habit of sorrow which had slowly given way to time yet there
remained an ache sharp enough to make the spirit at the sight now and again of
some fair young man just growing up wince with the thought of an opportunity
lost Had ever a man he had finally fallen into the way of asking himself lost
so much and even done so much for so little There had been particular reasons
why all yesterday beyond other days he should have had in one ear this cold
enquiry His name on the green cover where he had put it for Mrs Newsome
expressed him doubtless just enough to make the world the world as
distinguished both for more and for less from Woollett ask who he was He
had incurred the ridicule of having to have his explanation explained He was
Lambert Strether because he was on the cover whereas it should have been for
anything like glory that he was on the cover because he was Lambert Strether
He would have done anything for Mrs Newsome have been still more ridiculous
as he might for that matter have occasion to be yet which came to saying that
this acceptance of fate was all he had to show at fiftyfive
He judged the quantity as small because it was small and all the more
egregiously since it couldnt as he saw the case so much as thinkably have
been larger He hadnt had the gift of making the most of what he tried and if
he had tried and tried again no one but himself knew how often it appeared
to have been that he might demonstrate what else in default of that could be
made Old ghosts of experiments came back to him old drudgeries and delusions
and disgusts old recoveries with their relapses old fevers with their chills
broken moments of good faith others of still better doubt adventures for the
most part of the sort qualified as lessons The special spring that had
constantly played for him the day before was the recognition frequent enough
to surprise him of the promises to himself that he had after his other visit
never kept The reminiscence today most quickened for him was that of the vow
taken in the course of the pilgrimage that newlymarried with the War just
over and helplessly young in spite of it he had recklessly made with the
creature who was so much younger still It had been a bold dash for which they
had taken money set apart for necessities but kept sacred at the moment in a
hundred ways and in none more so than by this private pledge of his own to
treat the occasion as a relation formed with the higher culture and see that as
they said at Woollett it should bear a good harvest He had believed sailing
home again that he had gained something great and his theory with an
elaborate innocent plan of reading digesting coming back even every few years
had then been to preserve cherish and extend it As such plans as these had
come to nothing however in respect to acquisitions still more precious it was
doubtless little enough of a marvel that he should have lost account of that
handful of seed Buried for long years in dark corners at any rate these few
germs had sprouted again under fortyeight hours of Paris The process of
yesterday had really been the process of feeling the general stirred life of
connexions long since individually dropped Strether had become acquainted even
on this ground with short gusts of speculation sudden flights of fancy in
Louvre galleries hungry gazes through clear plates behind which lemoncoloured
volumes were as fresh as fruit on the tree
There were instants at which he could ask whether since there had been
fundamentally so little question of his keeping anything the fate after all
decreed for him hadnt been only to be kept Kept for something in that event
that he didnt pretend didnt possibly dare as yet to divine something that
made him hover and wonder and laugh and sigh made him advance and retreat
feeling half ashamed of his impulse to plunge and more than half afraid of his
impulse to wait He remembered for instance how he had gone back in the sixties
with lemoncoloured volumes in general on the brain as well as with a dozen
selected for his wife too in his trunk and nothing had at the moment shown
more confidence than this invocation of the finer taste They were still
somewhere at home the dozen stale and soiled and never sent to the binder
but what had become of the sharp initiation they represented They represented
now the mere sallow paint on the door of the temple of taste that he had dreamed
of raising up a structure he had practically never carried further Strethers
present highest flights were perhaps those in which this particular lapse
figured to him as a symbol a symbol of his long grind and his want of odd
moments his want moreover of money of opportunity of positive dignity That
the memory of the vow of his youth should in order to throb again have had to
wait for this last as he felt it of all his accidents that was surely proof
enough of how his conscience had been encumbered If any further proof were
needed it would have been to be found in the fact that as he perfectly now saw
he had ceased even to measure his meagreness a meagreness that sprawled in
this retrospect vague and comprehensive stretching back like some unmapped
Hinterland from a rough coastsettlement His conscience had been amusing itself
for the fortyeight hours by forbidding him the purchase of a book he held off
from that held off from everything from the moment he didnt yet call on Chad
he wouldnt for the world have taken any other step On this evidence however
of the way they actually affected him he glared at the lemoncoloured covers in
confession of the subconsciousness that all the same in the great desert of
the years he must have had of them The green covers at home comprised by the
law of their purpose no tribute to letters it was of a mere rich kernel of
economics politics ethics that glazed and as Mrs Newsome maintained rather
against his view preeminently pleasant to touch they formed the specious
shell Without therefore any needed instinctive knowledge of what was coming
out in Paris on the bright highway he struck himself at present as having
more than once flushed with a suspicion he couldnt otherwise at present be
feeling so many fears confirmed There were movements he was too late for
werent they with the fun of them already spent There were sequences he had
missed and great gaps in the procession he might have been watching it all
recede in a golden cloud of dust If the playhouse wasnt closed his seat had at
least fallen to somebody else He had had an uneasy feeling the night before
that if he was at the theatre at all though he indeed justified the theatre
in the specific sense and with a grotesqueness to which his imagination did all
honour as something he owed poor Waymarsh he should have been there with and
as might have been said for Chad
This suggested the question of whether he could properly have taken him to
such a play and what effect it was a point that suddenly rose his peculiar
responsibility might be held in general to have on his choice of entertainment
It had literally been present to him at the Gymnase where one was held
moreover comparatively safe that having his young friend at his side would
have been an odd feature of the work of redemption and this quite in spite of
the fact that the picture presented might well confronted with Chads own
private stage have seemed the pattern of propriety He clearly hadnt come out
in the name of propriety but to visit unattended equivocal performances yet
still less had he done so to undermine his authority by sharing them with the
graceless youth Was he to renounce all amusement for the sweet sake of that
authority and would such renouncement give him for Chad a moral glamour The
little problem bristled the more by reason of poor Strethers fairly open sense
of the irony of things Were there then sides on which his predicament
threatened to look rather droll to him Should he have to pretend to believe
either to himself or the wretched boy that there was anything that could make
the latter worse Wasnt some such pretence on the other hand involved in the
assumption of possible processes that would make him better His greatest
uneasiness seemed to peep at him out of the imminent impression that almost any
acceptance of Paris might give ones authority away It hung before him this
morning the vast bright Babylon like some huge iridescent object a jewel
brilliant and hard in which parts were not to be discriminated nor differences
comfortably marked It twinkled and trembled and melted together and what
seemed all surface one moment seemed all depth the next It was a place of
which unmistakeably Chad was fond wherefore if he Strether should like it
too much what on earth with such a bond would become of either of them It
all depended of course which was a gleam of light on how the too much was
measured though indeed our friend fairly felt while he prolonged the
meditation I describe that for himself even already a certain measure had been
reached It will have been sufficiently seen that he was not a man to neglect
any good chance for reflexion Was it at all possible for instance to like Paris
enough without liking it too much He luckily however hadnt promised Mrs
Newsome not to like it at all He was ready to recognise at this stage that such
an engagement would have tied his hands The Luxembourg Gardens were
incontestably just so adorable at this hour by reason in addition to their
intrinsic charm of his not having taken it The only engagement he had taken
when he looked the thing in the face was to do what he reasonably could
It upset him a little none the less and after a while to find himself at
last remembering on what current of association he had been floated so far Old
imaginations of the Latin Quarter had played their part for him and he had duly
recalled its having been with this scene of rather ominous legend that like so
many young men in fiction as well as in fact Chad had begun He was now quite
out of it with his home as Strether figured the place in the Boulevard
Malesherbes which was perhaps why repairing not to fail of justice either to
the elder neighbourhood our friend had felt he could allow for the element of
the usual the immemorial without courting perturbation He was not at least in
danger of seeing the youth and the particular Person flaunt by together and yet
he was in the very air of which just to feel what the early natural note must
have been he wished most to take counsel It became at once vivid to him that
he had originally had for a few days an almost envious vision of the boys
romantic privilege Melancholy Mürger with Francine and Musette and Rodolphe
at home in the company of the tattered one if he not in his single self two
or three of the unbound the papercovered dozen on the shelf and when Chad
had written five years ago after a sojourn then already prolonged to six
months that he had decided to go in for economy and the real thing Strethers
fancy had quite fondly accompanied him in this migration which was to convey
him as they somewhat confusedly learned at Woollett across the bridges and up
the Montagne SainteGeneviève This was the region Chad had been quite
distinct about it in which the best French and many other things were to be
learned at least cost and in which all sorts of clever fellows compatriots
there for a purpose formed an awfully pleasant set The clever fellows the
friendly countrymen were mainly young painters sculptors architects medical
students but they were Chad sagely opined a much more profitable lot to be
with even on the footing of not being quite one of them than the terrible
toughs Strether remembered the edifying discrimination of the American bars
and banks roundabout the Opéra Chad had thrown out in the communications
following this one for at that time he did once in a while communicate that
several members of a band of earnest workers under one of the great artists had
taken him right in making him dine every night almost for nothing at their
place and even pressing him not to neglect the hypothesis of there being as
much in him as in any of them There had been literally a moment at which it
appeared there might be something in him there had been at any rate a moment at
which he had written that he didnt know but what a month or two more might see
him enrolled in some atelier The season had been one at which Mrs Newsome was
moved to gratitude for small mercies it had broken on them all as a blessing
that their absentee had perhaps a conscience that he was sated in fine with
idleness was ambitious of variety The exhibition was doubtless as yet not
brilliant but Strether himself even by that time much enlisted and immersed
had determined on the part of the two ladies a temperate approval and in fact
as he now recollected a certain austere enthusiasm
But the very next thing that happened had been a dark drop of the curtain
The son and brother had not browsed long on the Montagne SainteGeneviève his
effective little use of the name of which like his allusion to the best French
appeared to have been but one of the notes of his rough cunning The light
refreshment of these vain appearances had not accordingly carried any of them
very far On the other hand it had gained Chad time it had given him a chance
unchecked to strike his roots had paved the way for initiations more direct
and more deep It was Strethers belief that he had been comparatively innocent
before this first migration and even that the first effects of the migration
would not have been without some particular bad accident to have been
deplored There had been three months he had sufficiently figured it out in
which Chad had wanted to try He had tried though not very hard he had had
his little hour of good faith The weakness of this principle in him was that
almost any accident attestedly bad enough was stronger Such had at any rate
markedly been the case for the precipitation of a special series of impressions
They had proved successively these impressions all of Musette and Francine
but Musette and Francine vulgarised by the larger evolution of the type
irresistibly sharp he had taken up by what was at the time to be shrinkingly
gathered as it was scantly mentioned with one ferociously interested little
person after another Strether had read somewhere of a Latin motto a
description of the hours observed on a clock by a traveller in Spain and he
had been led to apply it in thought to Chads number one number two number
three Omnes vulnerant ultima necat they had all morally wounded the last
had morally killed The last had been longest in possession in possession
that is of whatever was left of the poor boys finer mortality And it hadnt
been she it had been one of her early predecessors who had determined the
second migration the expensive return and relapse the exchange again as was
fairly to be presumed of the vaunted best French for some special variety of
the worst
He pulled himself then at last together for his own progress back not with
the feeling that he had taken his walk in vain He prolonged it a little in the
immediate neighbourhood after he had quitted his chair and the upshot of the
whole morning for him was that his campaign had begun He had wanted to put
himself in relation and he would be hanged if he were not in relation He was
that at no moment so much as while under the old arches of the Odéon he
lingered before the charming openair array of literature classic and casual He
found the effect of tone and tint in the long charged tables and shelves
delicate and appetising the impression substituting one kind of lowpriced
consommation for another might have been that of one of the pleasant cafés
that overlapped under an awning to the pavement but he edged along grazing
the tables with his hands firmly behind him He wasnt there to dip to consume
he was there to reconstruct He wasnt there for his own profit not that
is the direct he was there on some chance of feeling the brush of the wing of
the stray spirit of youth He felt it in fact he had it beside him the old
arcade indeed as his inner sense listened gave out the faint sound as from
far off of the wild waving of wings They were folded now over the breasts of
buried generations but a flutter or two lived again in the turned page of
shockheaded slouchhatted loiterers whose young intensity of type in the
direction of pale acuteness deepened his vision and even his appreciation of
racial differences and whose manipulation of the uncut volume was too often
however but a listening at closed doors He reconstructed a possible groping
Chad of three or four years before a Chad who had after all simply for that
was the only way to see it been too vulgar for his privilege Surely it was a
privilege to have been young and happy just there Well the best thing Strether
knew of him was that he had had such a dream
But his own actual business half an hour later was with a third floor on the
Boulevard Malesherbes so much as that was definite and the fact of the
enjoyment by the thirdfloor windows of a continuous balcony to which he was
helped by this knowledge had perhaps something to do with his lingering for
five minutes on the opposite side of the street There were points as to which
he had quite made up his mind and one of these bore precisely on the wisdom of
the abruptness to which events had finally committed him a policy that he was
pleased to find not at all shaken as he now looked at his watch and wondered He
had announced himself six months before had written out at least that Chad
wasnt to be surprised should he see him some day turn up Chad had thereupon
in a few words of rather carefully colourless answer offered him a general
welcome and Strether ruefully reflecting that he might have understood the
warning as a hint to hospitality a bid for an invitation had fallen back upon
silence as the corrective most to his own taste He had asked Mrs Newsome
moreover not to announce him again he had so distinct an opinion on his
attacking his job should he attack it at all in his own way Not the least of
this ladys high merits for him was that he could absolutely rest on her word
She was the only woman he had known even at Woollett as to whom his conviction
was positive that to lie was beyond her art Sarah Pocock for instance her own
daughter though with social ideals as they said in some respects different
Sarah who was in her way æsthetic had never refused to human commerce that
mitigation of rigour there were occasions when he had distinctly seen her apply
it Since accordingly at all events he had had it from Mrs Newsome that she
had at whatever cost to her more strenuous view conformed in the matter of
preparing Chad wholly to his restrictions he now looked up at the fine
continuous balcony with a safe sense that if the case had been bungled the
mistake was at least his property Was there perhaps just a suspicion of that in
his present pause on the edge of the Boulevard and well in the pleasant light
Many things came over him here and one of them was that he should doubtless
presently know whether he had been shallow or sharp Another was that the
balcony in question didnt somehow show as a convenience easy to surrender Poor
Strether had at this very moment to recognise the truth that wherever one paused
in Paris the imagination reacted before one could stop it This perpetual
reaction put a price if one would on pauses but it piled up consequences till
there was scarce room to pick ones steps among them What call had he at such
a juncture for example to like Chads very house High broad clear he was
expert enough to make out in a moment that it was admirably built it fairly
embarrassed our friend by the quality that as he would have said it sprang on
him He had struck off the fancy that it might as a preliminary be of service
to him to be seen by a happy accident from the thirdstory windows which took
all the March sun but of what service was it to find himself making out after a
moment that the quality sprung the quality produced by measure and balance the
fine relation of part to part and space to space was probably aided by the
presence of ornament as positive as it was discreet and by the complexion of
the stone a cold fair grey warmed and polished a little by life neither more
nor less than a case of distinction such a case as he could only feel
unexpectedly as a sort of delivered challenge Meanwhile however the chance he
had allowed for the chance of being seen in time from the balcony had become
a fact Two or three of the windows stood open to the violet air and before
Strether had cut the knot by crossing a young man had come out and looked about
him had lighted a cigarette and tossed the match over and then resting on the
rail had given himself up to watching the life below while he smoked His
arrival contributed in its order to keeping Strether in position the result
of which in turn was that Strether soon felt himself noticed The young man
began to look at him as in acknowledgement of his being himself in observation
This was interesting so far as it went but the interest was affected by the
young mans not being Chad Strether wondered at first if he were perhaps Chad
altered and then saw that this was asking too much of alteration The young man
was light bright and alert with an air too pleasant to have been arrived at by
patching Strether had conceived Chad as patched but not beyond recognition He
was in presence he felt of amendments enough as they stood it was a
sufficient amendment that the gentleman up there should be Chads friend He was
young too then the gentleman up there he was very young young enough
apparently to be amused at an elderly watcher to be curious even to see what
the elderly watcher would do on finding himself watched There was youth in
that there was youth in the surrender to the balcony there was youth for
Strether at this moment in everything but his own business and Chads thus
pronounced association with youth had given the next instant an extraordinary
quick lift to the issue The balcony the distinguished front testified
suddenly for Strethers fancy to something that was up and up they placed the
whole case materially and as by an admirable image on a level that he found
himself at the end of another moment rejoicing to think he might reach The
young man looked at him still he looked at the young man and the issue by a
rapid process was that this knowledge of a perched privacy appeared to him the
last of luxuries To him too the perched privacy was open and he saw it now but
in one light that of the only domicile the only fireside in the great ironic
city on which he had the shadow of a claim Miss Gostrey had a fireside she
had told him of it and it was something that doubtless awaited him but Miss
Gostrey hadnt yet arrived she mightnt arrive for days and the sole
attenuation of his excluded state was his vision of the small the admittedly
secondary hotel in the byestreet from the Rue de la Paix in which her
solicitude for his purse had placed him which affected him somehow as all
indoor chill glassroofed court and slippery staircase and which by the same
token expressed the presence of Waymarsh even at times when Waymarsh might have
been certain to be round at the bank It came to pass before he moved that
Waymarsh and Waymarsh alone Waymarsh not only undiluted but positively
strengthened struck him as the present alternative to the young man in the
balcony When he did move it was fairly to escape that alternative Taking his
way over the street at last and passing through the portecochère of the house
was like consciously leaving Waymarsh out However he would tell him all about
it
Book Third
I
Strether told Waymarsh all about it that very evening on their dining together
at the hotel which neednt have happened he was all the while aware hadnt he
chosen to sacrifice to this occasion a rarer opportunity The mention to his
companion of the sacrifice was moreover exactly what introduced his recital
or as he would have called it with more confidence in his interlocutor his
confession His confession was that he had been captured and that one of the
features of the affair had just failed to be his engaging himself on the spot to
dinner As by such a freedom Waymarsh would have lost him he had obeyed his
scruple and he had likewise obeyed another scruple which bore on the question
of his himself bringing a guest
Waymarsh looked gravely ardent over the finished soup at this array of
scruples Strether hadnt yet got quite used to being so unprepared for the
consequences of the impression he produced It was comparatively easy to
explain however that he hadnt felt sure his guest would please The person
was a young man whose acquaintance he had made but that afternoon in the course
of rather a hindered enquiry for another person an enquiry his new friend had
just prevented in fact from being vain »Oh« said Strether »Ive all sorts of
things to tell you« and he put it in a way that was a virtual hint to
Waymarsh to help him to enjoy the telling He waited for his fish he drank of
his wine he wiped his long moustache he leaned back in his chair he took in
the two English ladies who had just creaked past them and whom he would even
have articulately greeted if they hadnt rather chilled the impulse so that all
he could do was by way of doing something to say »Merci François« out
quite loud when his fish was brought Everything was there that he wanted
everything that could make the moment an occasion that would do beautifully
everything but what Waymarsh might give The little waxed salleàmanger was
sallow and sociable François dancing over it all smiles was a man and a
brother the highshouldered patronne with her highheld muchrubbed hands
seemed always assenting exuberantly to something unsaid the Paris evening in
short was for Strether in the very taste of the soup in the goodness as he
was innocently pleased to think it of the wine in the pleasant coarse texture
of the napkin and the crunch of the thickcrusted bread These all were things
congruous with his confession and his confession was that he had it would
come out properly just there if Waymarsh would only take it properly agreed to
breakfast out at twelve literally the next day He didnt quite know where
the delicacy of the case came straight up in the remembrance of his new friends
»Well see Ill take you somewhere« for it had required little more than
that after all to let him right in He was affected after a minute face to
face with his actual comrade by the impulse to overcolour There had already
been things in respect to which he knew himself tempted by this perversity If
Waymarsh thought them bad he should at least have his reason tor his discomfort
so Strether showed them as worse Still he was now in his way sincerely
perplexed
Chad had been absent from the Boulevard Malesherbes was absent from Paris
altogether he had learned that from the concierge but had nevertheless gone
up and gone up there were no two ways about it from an uncontrollable a
really if one would depraved curiosity The concierge had mentioned to him
that a friend of the tenant of the troisième was for the time in possession and
this had been Strethers pretext for a further enquiry an experiment carried
on under Chads roof without his knowledge »I found his friend in fact there
keeping the place warm as he called it for him Chad himself being as
appears in the south He went a month ago to Cannes and though his return
begins to be looked for it cant be for some days I might you see perfectly
have waited a week might have beaten a retreat as soon as I got this essential
knowledge But I beat no retreat I did the opposite I stayed I dawdled I
trifled above all I looked round I saw in fine and I dont know what to
call it I sniffed Its a detail but its as if there were something
something very good to sniff«
Waymarshs face had shown his friend an attention apparently so remote that
the latter was slightly surprised to find it at this point abreast with him »Do
you mean a smell What of«
»A charming scent But I dont know«
Waymarsh gave an inferential grunt »Does he live there with a woman«
»I dont know«
Waymarsh waited an instant for more then resumed »Has he taken her off
with him«
»And will he bring her back« Strether fell into the enquiry But he wound
it up as before »I dont know«
The way he wound it up accompanied as this was with another drop back
another degustation of the Léoville another wipe of his moustache and another
good word for François seemed to produce in his companion a slight irritation
»Then what the devil do you know«
»Well« said Strether almost gaily »I guess I dont know anything« His
gaiety might have been a tribute to the fact that the state he had been reduced
to did for him again what had been done by his talk of the matter with Miss
Gostrey at the London theatre It was somehow enlarging and the air of that
amplitude was now doubtless more or less and all for Waymarsh to feel in his
further response »Thats what I found out from the young man«
»But I thought you said you found out nothing«
»Nothing but that that I dont know anything«
»And what good does that do you«
»Its just« said Strether »what Ive come to you to help me to discover I
mean anything about anything over here I felt that up there It regularly rose
before me in its might The young man moreover Chads friend as good as told
me so«
»As good as told you you know nothing about anything« Waymarsh appeared to
look at some one who might have as good as told him »How old is he«
»Well I guess not thirty«
»Yet you had to take that from him«
»Oh I took a good deal more since as I tell you I took an invitation to
déjeuner«
»And are you going to that unholy meal«
»If youll come with me He wants you too you know I told him about you
He gave me his card« Strether pursued »and his names rather funny Its John
Little Bilham and he says his two surnames are on account of his being small
inevitably used together«
»Well« Waymarsh asked with due detachment from these details »whats he
doing up there«
»His account of himself is that hes only a little artistman That seemed
to me perfectly to describe him But hes yet in the phase of study this you
know is the great artschool to pass a certain number of years in which he
came over And hes a great friend of Chads and occupying Chads rooms just
now because theyre so pleasant Hes very pleasant and curious too« Strether
added »though hes not from Boston«
Waymarsh looked already rather sick of him »Where is he from«
Strether thought »I dont know that either But hes notoriously as he
put it himself not from Boston«
»Well« Waymarsh moralised from dry depths »every one cant notoriously be
from Boston Why« he continued »is he curious«
»Perhaps just for that for one thing But really« Strether added »for
everything When you meet him youll see«
»Oh I dont want to meet him« Waymarsh impatiently growled »Why dont he
go home«
Strether hesitated »Well because he likes it over here«
This appeared in particular more than Waymarsh could bear »He ought then to
be ashamed of himself and as you admit that you think so too why drag him
in«
Strethers reply again took time »Perhaps I do think so myself though I
dont quite yet admit it Im not a bit sure its again one of the things I
want to find out I liked him and can you like people But no matter« He
pulled himself up »Theres no doubt I want you to come down on me and squash
me«
Waymarsh helped himself to the next course which however proving not the
dish he had just noted as supplied to the English ladies had the effect of
causing his imagination temporarily to wander But it presently broke out at a
softer spot »Have they got a handsome place up there«
»Oh a charming place full of beautiful and valuable things I never saw
such a place« and Strethers thought went back to it »For a little artistman
« He could in fact scarce express it
But his companion who appeared now to have a view insisted »Well«
»Well life can hold nothing better Besides theyre things of which hes
in charge«
»So that he does doorkeeper for your precious pair Can life« Waymarsh
enquired »hold nothing better than that« Then as Strether silent seemed even
yet to wonder »Doesnt he know what she is« he went on
»I dont know I didnt ask him I couldnt It was impossible You wouldnt
either Besides I didnt want to No more would you« Strether in short
explained it at a stroke »You cant make out over here what people do know«
»Then what did you come over for«
»Well I suppose exactly to see for myself without their aid«
»Then what do you want mine for«
»Oh« Strether laughed »youre not one of them I do know what you know«
As however this last assertion caused Waymarsh again to look at him hard
such being the latters doubt of its implications he felt his justification
lame Which was still more the case when Waymarsh presently said »Look here
Strether Quit this«
Our friend smiled with a doubt of his own »Do you mean my tone«
»No damn your tone I mean your nosing round Quit the whole job Let them
stew in their juice Youre being used for a thing you aint fit for People
dont take a finetooth comb to groom a horse«
»Am I a finetooth comb« Strether laughed »Its something I never called
myself«
»Its what you are all the same You aint so young as you were but youve
kept your teeth«
He acknowledged his friends humour »Take care I dont get them into you
Youd like them my friends at home Waymarsh« he declared »youd really
particularly like them And I know« it was slightly irrelevant but he gave it
sudden and singular force »I know theyd like you«
»Oh dont work them off on me« Waymarsh groaned
Yet Strether still lingered with his hands in his pockets »Its really
quite as indispensable as I say that Chad should be got back«
»Indispensable to whom To you«
»Yes« Strether presently said
»Because if you get him you also get Mrs Newsome«
Strether faced it »Yes«
»And if you dont get him you dont get her«
It might be merciless but he continued not to flinch »I think it might
have some effect on our personal understanding Chads of real importance or
can easily become so if he will to the business«
»And the business is of real importance to his mothers husband«
»Well I naturally want what my future wife wants And the thing will be
much better if we have our own man in it«
»If you have your own man in it in other words« Waymarsh said »youll
marry you personally more money Shes already rich as I understand you
but shell be richer still if the business can be made to boom on certain lines
that youve laid down«
»I havent laid them down« Strether promptly returned »Mr Newsome who
knew extraordinarily well what he was about laid them down ten years ago«
Oh well Waymarsh seemed to indicate with a shake of his mane that didnt
matter »Youre fierce for the boom anyway«
His friend weighed a moment in silence the justice of the charge »I can
scarcely be called fierce I think when I so freely take my chance of the
possibility the danger of being influenced in a sense counter to Mrs
Newsomes own feelings«
Waymarsh gave this proposition a long hard look »I see Youre afraid
yourself of being squared But youre a humbug« he added »all the same«
»Oh« Strether quickly protested
»Yes you ask me for protection which makes you very interesting and then
you wont take it You say you want to be squashed «
»Ah but not so easily Dont you see« Strether demanded »where my
interest as already shown you lies It lies in my not being squared If Im
squared wheres my marriage If I miss my errand I miss that and if I miss that
I miss everything Im nowhere«
Waymarsh but all relentlessly took this in »What do I care where you
are if youre spoiled«
Their eyes met on it an instant »Thank you awfully« Strether at last said
»But dont you think her judgement of that «
»Ought to content me No«
It kept them again face to face and the end of this was that Strether again
laughed »You do her injustice You really must know her Goodnight«
He breakfasted with Mr Bilham on the morrow and as inconsequently befell
with Waymarsh massively of the party The latter announced at the eleventh hour
and much to his friends surprise that damn it he would as soon join him as
do anything else on which they proceeded together strolling in a state of
detachment practically luxurious for them to the Boulevard Malesherbes a couple
engaged that day with the sharp spell of Paris as confessedly it might have
been seen as any couple among the daily thousands so compromised They walked
wandered wondered and a little lost themselves Strether hadnt had for years
so rich a consciousness of time a bag of gold into which he constantly dipped
for a handful It was present to him that when the little business with Mr
Bilham should be over he would still have shining hours to use absolutely as he
liked There was no great pulse of haste yet in this process of saving Chad nor
was that effect a bit more marked as he sat half an hour later with his legs
under Chads mahogany with Mr Bilham on one side with a friend of Mr
Bilhams on the other with Waymarsh stupendously opposite and with the great
hum of Paris coming up in softness vagueness for Strether himself indeed
already positive sweetness through the sunny windows toward which the day
before his curiosity had raised its wings from below The feeling strongest
with him at that moment had borne fruit almost faster than he could taste it
and Strether literally felt at the present hour that there was a precipitation
in his fate He had known nothing and nobody as he stood in the street but
hadnt his view now taken a bound in the direction of every one and of every
thing
»Whats he up to whats he up to« something like that was at the back of
his head all the while in respect to little Bilham but meanwhile till he
should make out every one and every thing were as good as represented for him
by the combination of his host and the lady on his left The lady on his left
the lady thus promptly and ingeniously invited to meet Mr Strether and Mr
Waymarsh it was the way she herself expressed her case was a very marked
person a person who had much to do with our friends asking himself if the
occasion werent in its essence the most baited the most gilded of traps
Baited it could properly be called when the repast was of so wise a savour and
gilded surrounding objects seemed inevitably to need to be when Miss Barrace
which was the ladys name looked at them with convex Parisian eyes and through
a glass with a remarkably long tortoiseshell handle Why Miss Barrace mature
meagre erect and eminently gay highly adorned perfectly familiar freely
contradictious and reminding him of some lastcentury portrait of a clever head
without powder why Miss Barrace should have been in particular the note of a
trap Strether couldnt on the spot have explained he blinked in the light of a
conviction that he should know later on and know well as it came over him
for that matter with force that he should need to He wondered what he was to
think exactly of either of his new friends since the young man Chads intimate
and deputy had in thus constituting the scene practised so much more subtly
than he had been prepared for and since in especial Miss Barrace surrounded
clearly by every consideration hadnt scrupled to figure as a familiar object
It was interesting to him to feel that he was in the presence of new measures
other standards a different scale of relations and that evidently here were a
happy pair who didnt think of things at all as he and Waymarsh thought Nothing
was less to have been calculated in the business than that it should now be for
him as if he and Waymarsh were comparatively quite at one
The latter was magnificent this at least was an assurance privately given
him by Miss Barrace »Oh your friends a type the grand old American what
shall one call it The Hebrew prophet Ezekiel Jeremiah who used when I was a
little girl in the Rue Montaigne to come to see my father and who was usually
the American Minister to the Tuileries or some other court I havent seen one
these ever so many years the sight of it warms my poor old chilled heart this
specimen is wonderful in the right quarter you know hell have a succès fou«
Strether hadnt failed to ask what the right quarter might be much as he
required his presence of mind to meet such a change in their scheme »Oh the
artistquarter and that kind of thing here already for instance as you see«
He had been on the point of echoing »Here is this the artistquarter« but
she had already disposed of the question with a wave of all her tortoiseshell
and an easy »Bring him to me« He knew on the spot how little he should be able
to bring him for the very air was by this time to his sense thick and hot
with poor Waymarshs judgement of it He was in the trap still more than his
companion and unlike his companion not making the best of it which was
precisely what doubtless gave him his admirable sombre glow Little did Miss
Barrace know that what was behind it was his grave estimate of her own laxity
The general assumption with which our two friends had arrived had been that of
finding Mr Bilham ready to conduct them to one or other of those resorts of the
earnest the æsthetic fraternity which were shown among the sights of Paris In
this character it would have justified them in a proper insistence on
discharging their score Waymarshs only proviso at the last had been that
nobody should pay for him but he found himself as the occasion developed paid
for on a scale as to which Strether privately made out that he already nursed
retribution Strether was conscious across the table of what worked in him
conscious when they passed back to the small salon to which the previous
evening he himself had made so rich a reference conscious most of all as they
stepped out to the balcony in which one would have had to be an ogre not to
recognise the perfect place for easy aftertastes These things were enhanced for
Miss Barrace by a succession of excellent cigarettes acknowledged acclaimed
as a part of the wonderful supply left behind him by Chad in an almost equal
absorption of which Strether found himself blindly almost wildly pushing
forward He might perish by the sword as well as by famine and he knew that his
having abetted the lady by an excess that was rare with him would count for
little in the sum as Waymarsh might so easily add it up of her licence
Waymarsh had smoked of old smoked hugely but Waymarsh did nothing now and
that gave him his advantage over people who took things up lightly just when
others had laid them heavily down Strether had never smoked and he felt as if
he flaunted at his friend that this had been only because of a reason The
reason it now began to appear even to himself was that he had never had a lady
to smoke with
It was this ladys being there at all however that was the strange free
thing perhaps since she was there her smoking was the least of her freedoms
If Strether had been sure at each juncture of what with Bilham in especial
she talked about he might have traced others and winced at them and felt
Waymarsh wince but he was in fact so often at sea that his sense of the range
of reference was merely general and that he on several different occasions
guessed and interpreted only to doubt He wondered what they meant but there
were things he scarce thought they could be supposed to mean and »Oh no not
that« was at the end of most of his ventures This was the very beginning with
him of a condition as to which later on it will be seen he found cause to
pull himself up and he was to remember the moment duly as the first step in a
process The central fact of the place was neither more nor less when analysed
and a pressure superficial sufficed than the fundamental impropriety of
Chads situation round about which they thus seemed cynically clustered
Accordingly since they took it for granted they took for granted all that was
in connexion with it taken for granted at Woollett matters as to which
verily he had been reduced with Mrs Newsome to the last intensity of silence
That was the consequence of their being too bad to be talked about and was the
accompaniment by the same token of a deep conception of their badness It
befell therefore that when poor Strether put it to himself that their badness
was ultimately or perhaps even insolently what such a scene as the one before
him was so to speak built upon he could scarce shirk the dilemma of reading a
roundabout echo of them into almost anything that came up This he was well
aware was a dreadful necessity but such was the stem logic he could only
gather of a relation to the irregular life
It was the way the irregular life sat upon Bilham and Miss Barrace that was
the insidious the delicate marvel He was eager to concede that their relation
to it was all indirect for anything else in him would have shown the grossness
of bad manners but the indirectness was none the less consonant that was
striking with a grateful enjoyment of everything that was Chads They spoke
of him repeatedly invoking his good name and good nature and the worst
confusion of mind for Strether was that all their mention of him was of a kind
to do him honour They commended his munificence and approved his taste and in
doing so sat down as it seemed to Strether in the very soil out of which these
things flowered Our friends final predicament was that he himself was sitting
down for the time with them and there was a supreme moment at which compared
with his collapse Waymarshs erectness affected him as really high One thing
was certain he saw he must make up his mind He must approach Chad must wait
for him deal with him master him but he mustnt dispossess himself of the
faculty of seeing things as they were He must bring him to him not go
himself as it were so much of the way He must at any rate be clearer as to
what should he continue to do that for convenience he was still condoning
It was on the detail of this quantity and what could the fact be but
mystifying that Bilham and Miss Barrace threw so little light So there they
were
II
When Miss Gostrey arrived at the end of a week she made him a sign he went
immediately to see her and it wasnt till then that he could again close his
grasp on the idea of a corrective This idea however was luckily all before him
again from the moment he crossed the threshold of the little entresol of the
Quartier Marboeuf into which she had gathered as she said picking them up in a
thousand flights and funny little passionate pounces the makings of a final
nest He recognised in an instant that there really there only he should find
the boon with the vision of which he had first mounted Chads stairs He might
have been a little scared at the picture of how much more in this place he
should know himself in hadnt his friend been on the spot to measure the amount
to his appetite Her compact and crowded little chambers almost dusky as they
at first struck him with accumulations represented a supreme general
adjustment to opportunities and conditions Wherever he looked he saw an old
ivory or an old brocade and he scarce knew where to sit for fear of a
misappliance The life of the occupant struck him of a sudden as more charged
with possession even than Chads or than Miss Barraces wide as his glimpse had
lately become of the empire of things what was before him still enlarged it
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life had indeed thus their temple It was
the innermost nook of the shrine as brown as a pirates cave In the brownness
were glints of gold patches of purple were in the gloom objects all that
caught through the muslin with their high rarity the light of the low
windows Nothing was clear about them but that they were precious and they
brushed his ignorance with their contempt as a flower in a liberty taken with
him might have been whisked under his nose But after a full look at his
hostess he knew none the less what most concerned him The circle in which they
stood together was warm with life and every question between them would live
there as nowhere else A question came up as soon as they had spoken for his
answer with a laugh was quickly »Well theyve got hold of me« Much of their
talk on this first occasion was his development of that truth He was
extraordinarily glad to see her expressing to her frankly what she most showed
him that one might live for years without a blessing unsuspected but that to
know it at last for no more than three days was to need it or miss it for ever
She was the blessing that had now become his need and what could prove it
better than that without her he had lost himself
»What do you mean« she asked with an absence of alarm that correcting him
as if he had mistaken the period of one of her pieces gave him afresh a sense
of her easy movement through the maze he had but begun to tread »What in the
name of all the Pococks have you managed to do«
»Why exactly the wrong thing Ive made a frantic friend of little Bilham«
»Ah that sort of thing was of the essence of your case and to have been
allowed for from the first« And it was only after this that quite as a minor
matter she asked who in the world little Bilham might be When she learned that
he was a friend of Chads and living for the time in Chads rooms in Chads
absence quite as if acting in Chads spirit and serving Chads cause she
showed however more interest »Should you mind my seeing him Only once you
know« she added
»Oh the oftener the better hes amusing hes original«
»He doesnt shock you« Miss Gostrey threw out
»Never in the world We escape that with a perfection I feel it to be
largely no doubt because I dont half understand him but our modus vivendi
isnt spoiled even by that You must dine with me to meet him« Strether went
on »Then youll see«
»Are you giving dinners«
»Yes there I am Thats what I mean«
All her kindness wondered »That youre spending too much money«
»Dear no they seem to cost so little But that I do it to them I ought to
hold off«
She thought again she laughed »The money you must be spending to think it
cheap But I must be out of it to the naked eye«
He looked for a moment as if she were really failing him »Then you wont
meet them« It was almost as if she had developed an unexpected personal
prudence
She hesitated »Who are they first«
»Why little Bilham to begin with« He kept back for the moment Miss Barrace
»And Chad when he comes you must absolutely see«
»When then does he come«
»When Bilham has had time to write him and hear from him about me Bilham
however« he pursued »will report favourably favourably for Chad That will
make him not afraid to come I want you the more therefore you see for my
bluff«
»Oh youll do yourself for your bluff« She was perfectly easy »At the rate
youve gone Im quiet«
»Ah but I havent« said Strether »made one protest«
She turned it over »Havent you been seeing what theres to protest about«
He let her with this however ruefully have the whole truth »I havent
yet found a single thing«
»Isnt there any one with him then«
»Of the sort I came out about« Strether took a moment »How do I know And
what do I care«
»Oh oh« and her laughter spread He was struck in fact by the effect on
her of his joke He saw now how he meant it as a joke She saw however still
other things though in an instant she had hidden them »Youve got at no facts
at all«
He tried to muster them »Well he has a lovely home«
»Ah that in Paris« she quickly returned »proves nothing That is rather
it disproves nothing They may very well you see the people your mission is
concerned with have done it for him«
»Exactly And it was on the scene of their doings then that Waymarsh and I
sat guzzling«
»Oh if you forbore to guzzle here on scenes of doings« she replied »you
might easily die of starvation« With which she smiled at him »Youve worse
before you«
»Ah Ive everything before me But on our hypothesis you know they must be
wonderful«
»They are« said Miss Gostrey »Youre not therefore you see« she added
»wholly without facts Theyve been in effect wonderful«
To have got at something comparatively definite appeared at last a little to
help a wave by which moreover the next moment recollection was washed »My
young man does admit furthermore that theyre our friends great interest«
»Is that the expression he uses«
Strether more exactly recalled »No not quite«
»Something more vivid Less«
He had bent with neared glasses over a group of articles on a small stand
and at this he came up »It was a mere allusion but on the lookout as I was
it struck me Awful you know as Chad is those were Bilhams words«
»Awful you know Oh« and Miss Gostrey turned them over She seemed
however satisfied »Well what more do you want«
He glanced once more at a bibelot or two and everything sent him back »But
it is all the same as if they wished to let me have it between the eyes«
She wondered »Quoi donc«
»Why what I speak of The amenity They can stun you with that as well as
with anything else«
»Oh« she answered »youll come round I must see them each« she went on
»for myself I mean Mr Bilham and Mr Newsome Mr Bilham naturally first
Once only once for each that will do But face to face for half an hour
Whats Mr Chad« she immediately pursued »doing at Cannes Decent men dont go
to Cannes with the well with the kind of ladies you mean«
»Dont they« Strether asked with an interest in decent men that amused her
»No elsewhere but not to Cannes Cannes is different Cannes is better
Cannes is best I mean its all people you know when you do know them And if
he does why thats different too He must have gone alone She cant be with
him«
»I havent« Strether confessed in his weakness »the least idea« There
seemed much in what she said but he was able after a little to help her to a
nearer impression The meeting with little Bilham took place by easy
arrangement in the great gallery of the Louvre and when standing with his
fellow visitor before one of the splendid Titians the overwhelming portrait of
the young man with the strangelyshaped glove and the bluegrey eyes he turned
to see the third member of their party advance from the end of the waxed and
gilded vista he had a sense of having at last taken hold He had agreed with
Miss Gostrey it dated even from Chester for a morning at the Louvre and he
had embraced independently the same idea as thrown out by little Bilham whom he
had already accompanied to the museum of the Luxembourg The fusion of these
schemes presented no difficulty and it was to strike him again that in little
Bilhams company contrarieties in general dropped
»Oh hes all right hes one of us« Miss Gostrey after the first
exchange soon found a chance to murmur to her companion and Strether as they
proceeded and paused and while a quick unanimity between the two appeared to
have phrased itself in half a dozen remarks Strether knew that he knew almost
immediately what she meant and took it as still another sign that he had got
his job in hand This was the more grateful to him that he could think of the
intelligence now serving him as an acquisition positively new He wouldnt have
known even the day before what she meant that is if she meant what he
assumed that they were intense Americans together He had just worked round
and with a sharper turn of the screw than any yet to the conception of an
American intense as little Bilham was intense The young man was his first
specimen the specimen had profoundly perplexed him at present however there
was light It was by little Bilhams amazing serenity that he had at first been
affected but he had inevitably in his circumspection felt it as the trail of
the serpent the corruption as he might conveniently have said of Europe
whereas the promptness with which it came up for Miss Gostrey but as a special
little form of the oldest thing they knew justified it at once to his own vision
as well He wanted to be able to like his specimen with a clear good conscience
and this fully permitted it What had muddled him was precisely the small
artistmans way it was so complete of being more American than anybody But
it now for the time put Strether vastly at his ease to have this view of a new
way
The amiable youth then looked out as it had first struck Strether at a
world in respect to which he hadnt a prejudice The one our friend most
instantly missed was the usual one in favour of an occupation accepted Little
Bilham had an occupation but it was only an occupation declined and it was by
his general exemption from alarm anxiety or remorse on this score that the
impression of his serenity was made He had come out to Paris to paint to
fathom that is at large that mystery but study had been fatal to him so far
as anything could be fatal and his productive power faltered in proportion as
his knowledge grew Strether had gathered from him that at the moment of his
finding him in Chads rooms he hadnt saved from his shipwreck a scrap of
anything but his beautiful intelligence and his confirmed habit of Paris He
referred to these things with an equal fond familiarity and it was sufficiently
clear that as an outfit they still served him They were charming to Strether
through the hour spent at the Louvre where indeed they figured for him as an
unseparated part of the charged iridescent air the glamour of the name the
splendour of the space the colour of the masters Yet they were present too
wherever the young man led and the day after the visit to the Louvre they hung
in a different walk about the steps of our party He had invited his companions
to cross the river with him offering to show them his own poor place and his
own poor place which was very poor gave to his idiosyncrasies for Strether
the small sublime indifferences and independences that had struck the latter as
fresh an odd and engaging dignity He lived at the end of an alley that went
out of an old short cobbled street a street that went in turn out of a new long
smooth avenue street and avenue and alley having however in common a sort of
social shabbiness and he introduced them to the rather cold and blank little
studio which he had lent to a comrade for the term of his elegant absence The
comrade was another ingenuous compatriot to whom he had wired that tea was to
await them regardless and this reckless repast and the second ingenuous
compatriot and the faraway makeshift life with its jokes and its gaps its
delicate daubs and its three or four chairs its overflow of taste and
conviction and its lack of nearly all else these things wove round the
occasion a spell to which our hero unreservedly surrendered
He liked the ingenuous compatriots for two or three others soon gathered
he liked the delicate daubs and the free discriminations involving references
indeed involving enthusiasms and execrations that made him as they said sit
up he liked above all the legend of goodhumoured poverty of mutual
accommodation fairly raised to the romantic that he soon read into the scene
The ingenuous compatriots showed a candour he thought surpassing even the
candour of Woollett they were redhaired and longlegged they were quaint and
queer and dear and droll they made the place resound with the vernacular which
he had never known so marked as when figuring for the chosen language he must
suppose of contemporary art They twanged with a vengeance the æsthetic lyre
they drew from it wonderful airs This aspect of their life had an admirable
innocence and he looked on occasion at Maria Gostrey to see to what extent that
element reached her She gave him however for the hour as she had given him the
previous day no further sign than to show how she dealt with boys meeting them
with the air of old Parisian practice that she had for every one for
everything in turn Wonderful about the delicate daubs masterful about the way
to make tea trustful about the legs of chairs and familiarly reminiscent of
those in the other time the named the numbered or the caricatured who had
flourished or failed disappeared or arrived she had accepted with the best
grace her second course of little Bilham and had said to Strether the previous
afternoon on his leaving them that since her impression was to be renewed
she would reserve judgement till after the new evidence
The new evidence was to come as it proved in a day or two He soon had
from Maria a message to the effect that an excellent box at the Français had
been lent her for the following night it seeming on such occasions not the
least of her merits that she was subject to such approaches The sense of how
she was always paying for something in advance was equalled on Strethers part
only by the sense of how she was always being paid all of which made for his
consciousness in the larger air of a lively bustling traffic the exchange of
such values as were not for him to handle She hated he knew at the French
play anything but a box just as she hated at the English anything but a
stall and a box was what he was already in this phase girding himself to press
upon her But she had for that matter her community with little Bilham she too
always on the great issues showed as having known in time It made her
constantly beforehand with him and gave him mainly the chance to ask himself how
on the day of their settlement their account would stand He endeavoured even
now to keep it a little straight by arranging that if he accepted her invitation
she should dine with him first but the upshot of this scruple was that at eight
oclock on the morrow he awaited her with Waymarsh under the pillared portico
She hadnt dined with him and it was characteristic of their relation that she
had made him embrace her refusal without in the least understanding it She ever
caused her rearrangements to affect him as her tenderest touches It was on that
principle for instance that giving him the opportunity to be amiable again to
little Bilham she had suggested his offering the young man a seat in their box
Strether had dispatched for this purpose a small blue missive to the Boulevard
Malesherbes but up to the moment of their passing into the theatre he had
received no response to his message He held however even after they had been
for some time conveniently seated that their friend who knew his way about
would come in at his own right moment His temporary absence moreover seemed as
never yet to make the right moment for Miss Gostrey Strether had been waiting
till tonight to get back from her in some mirrored form her impressions and
conclusions She had elected as they said to see little Bilham once but now
she had seen him twice and had nevertheless not said more than a word
Waymarsh meanwhile sat opposite him with their hostess between and Miss
Gostrey spoke of herself as an instructor of youth introducing her little
charges to a work that was one of the glories of literature The glory was
happily unobjectionable and the little charges were candid for herself she had
travelled that road and she merely waited on their innocence But she referred
in due time to their absent friend whom it was clear they should have to give
up »He either wont have got your note« she said »or you wont have got his
he has had some kind of hindrance and of course for that matter you know a
man never writes about coming to a box« She spoke as if with her look it
might have been Waymarsh who had written to the youth and the latters face
showed a mixture of austerity and anguish She went on however as if to meet
this »Hes far and away you know the best of them«
»The best of whom maam«
»Why of all the long procession the boys the girls or the old men and
old women as they sometimes really are the hope as one may say of our
country Theyve all passed year after year but there has been no one in
particular Ive ever wanted to stop I feel dont you that I want to stop
little Bilham hes so exactly right as he is« She continued to talk to
Waymarsh »Hes too delightful If hell only not spoil it But they always
will they always do they always have«
»I dont think Waymarsh knows« Strether said after a moment »quite what
its open to Bilham to spoil«
»It cant be a good American« Waymarsh lucidly enough replied »for it
didnt strike me the young man had developed much in that shape«
»Ah« Miss Gostrey sighed »the name of the good American is as easily given
as taken away What is it to begin with to be one and whats the
extraordinary hurry Surely nothing thats so pressing was ever so little
defined Its such an order really that before we cook you the dish we must at
least have your receipt Besides the poor chicks have time What Ive seen so
often spoiled« she pursued »is the happy attitude itself the state of faith
and what shall I call it the sense of beauty Youre right about him« she
now took in Strether »little Bilham has them to a charm we must keep little
Bilham along« Then she was all again for Waymarsh »The others have all wanted
so dreadfully to do something and theyve gone and done it in too many cases
indeed It leaves them never the same afterwards the charms always somehow
broken Now he I think you know really wont He wont do the least dreadful
little thing We shall continue to enjoy him just as he is No hes quite
beautiful He sees everything He isnt a bit ashamed He has every scrap of the
courage of it that one could ask Only think what he might do One wants really
for fear of some accident to keep him in view At this very moment perhaps
what maynt he be up to Ive had my disappointments the poor things are never
really safe or only at least when you have them under your eye One can never
completely trust them Ones uneasy and I think thats why I most miss him
now«
She had wound up with a laugh of enjoyment over her embroidery of her idea
an enjoyment that her face communicated to Strether who almost wished none the
less at this moment that she would let poor Waymarsh alone He knew more or less
what she meant but the fact wasnt a reason for her not pretending to Waymarsh
that he didnt It was craven of him perhaps but he would for the high amenity
of the occasion have liked Waymarsh not to be so sure of his wit Her
recognition of it gave him away and before she had done with him or with that
article would give him worse What was he all the same to do He looked
across the box at his friend they eyes met something queer and stiff
something that bore on the situation but that it was better not to touch passed
in silence between them Well the effect of it for Strether was an abrupt
reaction a final impatience of his own tendency to temporise Where was that
taking him anyway It was one of the quiet instants that sometimes settle more
matters than the outbreaks dear to the historic muse The only qualification of
the quietness was the synthetic »Oh hang it« into which Strethers share of the
silence soundlessly flowered It represented this mute ejaculation a final
impulse to burn his ships These ships to the historic muse may seem of course
mere cockles but when he presently spoke to Miss Gostrey it was with the sense
at least of applying the torch »Is it then a conspiracy«
»Between the two young men Well I dont pretend to be a seer or a
prophetess« she presently replied »but if Im simply a woman of sense hes
working for you tonight I dont quite know how but its in my bones« And
she looked at him at last as if little material as she yet gave him hed
really understand »For an opinion thats my opinion He makes you out too well
not to«
»Not to work for me tonight« Strether wondered »Then I hope he isnt
doing anything very bad«
»Theyve got you« she portentously answered
»Do you mean he is «
»Theyve got you« she merely repeated Though she disclaimed the prophetic
vision she was at this instant the nearest approach he had ever met to the
priestess of the oracle The light was in her eyes »You must face it now«
He faced it on the spot »They had arranged «
»Every move in the game And theyve been arranging ever since He has had
every day his little telegram from Cannes«
It made Strether open his eyes »Do you know that«
»I do better I see it This was before I met him what I wondered whether
I was to see But as soon as I met him I ceased to wonder and our second
meeting made me sure I took him all in He was acting he is still on his
daily instructions«
»So that Chad has done the whole thing«
»Oh no not the whole Weve done some of it You and I and Europe«
»Europe yes« Strether mused
»Dear old Paris« she seemed to explain But there was more and with one
of her turns she risked it »And dear old Waymarsh You« she declared »have
been a good bit of it«
He sat massive »A good bit of what maam«
»Why of the wonderful consciousness of our friend here Youve helped too in
your way to float him to where he is«
»And where the devil is he«
She passed it on with a laugh »Where the devil Strether are you«
He spoke as if he had just been thinking it out »Well quite already in
Chads hands it would seem« And he had had with this another thought »Will
that be just all through Bilham the way hes going to work it It would be
for him you know an idea And Chad with an idea «
»Well« she asked while the image held him
»Well is Chad what shall I say monstrous«
»Oh as much as you like But the idea you speak of« she said »wont have
been his best Hell have a better It wont be all through little Bilham that
hell work it«
This already sounded almost like a hope destroyed »Through whom else then«
»Thats what we shall see« But quite as she spoke she turned and Strether
turned for the door of the box had opened with the click of the ouvreuse from
the lobby and a gentleman a stranger to them had come in with a quick step
The door closed behind him and though their faces showed him his mistake his
air which was striking was all good confidence The curtain had just again
arisen and in the hush of the general attention Strethers challenge was
tacit as was also the greeting with a quicklydeprecating hand and smile of
the unannounced visitor He discreetly signed that he would wait would stand
and these things and his face one look from which she had caught had suddenly
worked for Miss Gostrey She fitted to them all an answer for Strethers last
question The solid stranger was simply the answer as she now turning to her
friend indicated She brought it straight out for him it presented the
intruder »Why through this gentleman« The gentleman indeed at the same time
though sounding for Strether a very short name did practically as much to
explain Strether gasped the name back then only had he seen Miss Gostrey had
said more than she knew They were in presence of Chad himself
Our friend was to go over it afterwards again and again he was going over
it much of the time that they were together and they were together constantly
for three or four days the note had been so strongly struck during that first
halfhour that everything happening since was comparatively a minor development
The fact was that his perception of the young mans identity so absolutely
checked for a minute had been quite one of the sensations that count in life
he certainly had never known one that had acted as he might have said with
more of a crowded rush And the rush though both vague and multitudinous had
lasted a long time protected as it were yet at the same time aggravated by
the circumstance of its coinciding with a stretch of decorous silence They
couldnt talk without disturbing the spectators in the part of the balcony just
below them and it for that matter came to Strether being a thing of the
sort that did come to him that these were the accidents of a high
civilisation the imposed tribute to propriety the frequent exposure to
conditions usually brilliant in which relief has to await its time Relief was
never quite near at hand for kings queens comedians and other such people and
though you might be yourself not exactly one of those you could yet in leading
the life of high pressure guess a little how they sometimes felt It was truly
the life of high pressure that Strether had seemed to feel himself lead while he
sat there close to Chad during the long tension of the act He was in presence
of a fact that occupied his whole mind that occupied for the halfhour his
senses themselves all together but he couldnt without inconvenience show
anything which moreover might count really as luck What he might have shown
had he shown at all was exactly the kind of emotion the emotion of
bewilderment that he had proposed to himself from the first whatever should
occur to show least The phenomenon that had suddenly sat down there with him
was a phenomenon of change so complete that his imagination which had worked so
beforehand felt itself in the connexion without margin or allowance It had
faced every contingency but that Chad should not be Chad and this was what it
now had to face with a mere strained smile and an uncomfortable flush
He asked himself if by any chance before he should have in some way to
commit himself he might feel his mind settled to the new vision might
habituate it so to speak to the remarkable truth But oh it was too
remarkable the truth for what could be more remarkable than this sharp rupture
of an identity You could deal with a man as himself you couldnt deal with
him as somebody else It was a small source of peace moreover to be reduced to
wondering how little he might know in such an event what a sum he was setting
you He couldnt absolutely not know for you couldnt absolutely not let him
It was a case then simply a strong case as people nowadays called such things
a case of transformation unsurpassed and the hope was but in the general law
that strong cases were liable to control from without Perhaps he Strether
himself was the only person after all aware of it Even Miss Gostrey with all
her science wouldnt be would she and he had never seen any one less aware
of anything than Waymarsh as he glowered at Chad The social sightlessness of
his old friends survey marked for him afresh and almost in an humiliating way
the inevitable limits of direct aid from this source He was not certain
however of not drawing a shade of compensation from the privilege as yet
untasted of knowing more about something in particular than Miss Gostrey did
His situation too was a case for that matter and he was now so interested
quite so privately agog about it that he had already an eye to the fun it
would be to open up to her afterwards He derived during his halfhour no
assistance from her and just this fact of her not meeting his eyes played a
little it must be confessed into his predicament
He had introduced Chad in the first minutes under his breath and there
was never the primness in her of the person unacquainted but she had none the
less betrayed at first no vision but of the stage where she occasionally found
a pretext for an appreciative moment that she invited Waymarsh to share The
latters faculty of participation had never had all round such an assault to
meet the pressure on him being the sharper for this chosen attitude in her as
Strether judged it of isolating for their natural intercourse Chad and
himself This intercourse was meanwhile restricted to a frank friendly look from
the young man something markedly like a smile but falling far short of a grin
and to the vivacity of Strethers private speculation as to whether he carried
himself like a fool He didnt quite see how he could so feel as one without
somehow showing as one The worst of that question moreover was that he knew it
as a symptom the sense of which annoyed him »If Im going to be odiously
conscious of how I may strike the fellow« he reflected »it was so little what
I came out for that I may as well stop before I begin« This sage consideration
too distinctly seemed to leave untouched the fact that he was going to be
conscious He was conscious of everything but of what would have served him
He was to know afterwards in the watches of the night that nothing would
have been more open to him than after a minute or two to propose to Chad to seek
with him the refuge of the lobby He hadnt only not proposed it but had lacked
even the presence of mind to see it as possible He had stuck there like a
schoolboy wishing not to miss a minute of the show though for that portion of
the show then presented he hadnt had an instants real attention He couldnt
when the curtain fell have given the slightest account of what had happened He
had therefore further not at that moment acknowledged the amenity added by
this acceptance of his awkwardness to Chads general patience Hadnt he none
the less known at the very time known it stupidly and without reaction that
the boy was accepting something He was modestly benevolent the boy that was
at least what he had been capable of the superiority of making out his chance to
be and one had ones self literally not had the gumption to get in ahead of
him If we should go into all that occupied our friend in the watches of the
night we should have to mend our pen but an instance or two may mark for us the
vividness with which he could remember He remembered the two absurdities that
if his presence of mind had failed were the things that had had most to do with
it He had never in his life seen a young man come into a box at ten oclock at
night and would if challenged on the question in advance have scarce been
ready to pronounce as to different ways of doing so But it was in spite of this
definite to him that Chad had had a way that was wonderful a fact carrying with
it an implication that as one might imagine it he knew he had learned how
Here already then were abounding results he had on the spot and without the
least trouble of intention taught Strether that even in so small a thing as that
there were different ways He had done in the same line still more than this
had by a mere shake or two of the head made his old friend observe that the
change in him was perhaps more than anything else for the eye a matter of the
marked streaks of grey extraordinary at his age in his thick black hair as
well as that this new feature was curiously becoming to him did something for
him as characterisation also even of all things in the world as
refinement that had been a good deal wanted Strether felt however he would
have had to confess that it wouldnt have been easy just now on this and other
counts in the presence of what had been supplied to be quite clear as to what
had been missed A reflexion a candid critic might have made of old for
instance was that it would have been happier for the son to look more like the
mother but this was a reflexion that at present would never occur The ground
had quite fallen away from it yet no resemblance whatever to the mother had
supervened It would have been hard for a young mans face and air to disconnect
themselves more completely than Chads at this juncture from any discerned from
any imaginable aspect of a New England female parent That of course was no more
than had been on the cards but it produced in Strether none the less one of
those frequent phenomena of mental reference with which all judgement in him was
actually beset
Again and again as the days passed he had had a sense of the pertinence of
communicating quickly with Woollett communicating with a quickness with which
telegraphy alone would rhyme the fruit really of a fine fancy in him for
keeping things straight for the happy forestalment of error No one could
explain better when needful nor put more conscience into an account or a
report which burden of conscience is perhaps exactly the reason why his heart
always sank when the clouds of explanation gathered His highest ingenuity was
in keeping the sky of life clear of them Whether or no he had a grand idea of
the lucid he held that nothing ever was in fact for any one else explained
One went through the vain motions but it was mostly a waste of life A personal
relation was a relation only so long as people either perfectly understood or
better still didnt care if they didnt From the moment they cared if they
didnt it was living by the sweat of ones brow and the sweat of ones brow was
just what one might buy ones self off from by keeping the ground free of the
wild weed of delusion It easily grew too fast and the Atlantic cable now alone
could race with it That agency would each day have testified for him to
something that was not what Woollett had argued He was not at this moment
absolutely sure that the effect of the morrows or rather of the nights
appreciation of the crisis wouldnt be to determine some brief missive »Have at
last seen him but oh dear« some temporary relief of that sort seemed to
hover before him It hovered somehow as preparing them all yet preparing them
for what If he might do so more luminously and cheaply he would tick out in
four words »Awfully old grey hair« To this particular item in Chads
appearance he constantly during their mute halfhour reverted as if so very
much more than he could have said had been involved in it The most he could
have said would have been »If hes going to make me feel young « which
indeed however carried with it quite enough If Strether was to feel young
that is it would be because Chad was to feel old and an aged and hoary sinner
had been no part of the scheme
The question of Chadwicks true time of life was doubtless what came up
quickest after the adjournment of the two when the play was over to a café in
the Avenue de lOpéra Miss Gostrey had in due course been perfect for such a
step she had known exactly what they wanted to go straight somewhere and
talk and Strether had even felt she had known what he wished to say and that he
was arranging immediately to begin She hadnt pretended this as she had
pretended on the other hand to have divined Waymarshs wish to extend to her an
independent protection homeward but Strether nevertheless found how after he
had Chad opposite to him at a small table in the brilliant halls that his
companion straightway selected sharply and easily discriminated from others it
was quite to his mind as if she heard him speak as if sitting up a mile
away in the little apartment he knew she would listen hard enough to catch He
found too that he liked that idea and he wished that by the same token Mrs
Newsome might have caught as well For what had above all been determined in him
as a necessity of the first order was not to lose another hour nor a fraction
of one was to advance to overwhelm with a rush This was how he would
anticipate by a nightattack as might be any forced maturity that a crammed
consciousness of Paris was likely to take upon itself to assert on behalf of the
boy He knew to the full on what he had just extracted from Miss Gostrey
Chads marks of alertness but they were a reason the more for not dawdling If
he was himself moreover to be treated as young he wouldnt at all events be so
treated before he should have struck out at least once His arms might be
pinioned afterwards but it would have been left on record that he was fifty
The importance of this he had indeed begun to feel before they left the theatre
it had become a wild unrest urging him to seize his chance He could scarcely
wait for it as they went he was on the verge of the indecency of bringing up
the question in the street he fairly caught himself going on so he afterwards
invidiously named it as if there would be for him no second chance should the
present be lost Not till on the purple divan before the perfunctory bock he
had brought out the words themselves was he sure for that matter that the
present would be saved
Book Fourth
I
»Ive come you know to make you break with everything neither more nor less
and take you straight home so youll be so good as immediately and favourably
to consider it« Strether face to face with Chad after the play had sounded
these words almost breathlessly and with an effect at first positively
disconcerting to himself alone For Chads receptive attitude was that of a
person who had been gracefully quiet while the messenger at last reaching him
has run a mile through the dust During some seconds after he had spoken
Strether felt as if he had made some such exertion he was not even certain that
the perspiration wasnt on his brow It was the kind of consciousness for which
he had to thank the look that while the strain lasted the young mans eyes
gave him They reflected and the deuce of the thing was that they reflected
really with a sort of shyness of kindness his momentarily disordered state
which fact brought on in its turn for our friend the dawn of a fear that Chad
might simply take it out take everything out in being sorry for him Such a
fear any fear was unpleasant But everything was unpleasant it was odd how
everything had suddenly turned so This however was no reason for letting the
least thing go Strether had the next minute proceeded as roundly as if with an
advantage to follow up »Of course Im a busybody if you want to fight the case
to the death but after all mainly in the sense of having known you and having
given you such attention as you kindly permitted when you were in jackets and
knickerbockers Yes it was knickerbockers Im busybody enough to remember
that and that you had for your age I speak of the first faraway time
tremendously stout legs Well we want you to break Your mothers hearts
passionately set upon it but she has above and beyond that excellent arguments
and reasons Ive not put them into her head I neednt remind you how little
shes a person who needs that But they exist you must take it from me as a
friend both of hers and yours for myself as well I didnt invent them I
didnt originally work them out but I understand them I think I can explain
them by which I mean make you actively do them justice and thats why you see
me here You had better know the worst at once Its a question of an immediate
rupture and an immediate return Ive been conceited enough to dream I can sugar
that pill I take at any rate the greatest interest in the question I took it
already before I left home and I dont mind telling you that altered as you
are I take it still more now that Ive seen you Youre older and I dont
know what to call it more of a handful but youre by so much the more I
seem to make out to our purpose«
»Do I strike you as improved« Strether was to recall that Chad had at this
point enquired
He was likewise to recall and it had to count for some time as his
greatest comfort that it had been given him as they said at Woollett to
reply with some presence of mind »I havent the least idea« He was really for
a while to like thinking he had been positively hard On the point of conceding
that Chad had improved in appearance but that to the question of appearance the
remark must be confined he checked even that compromise and left his
reservation bare Not only his moral but also as it were his æsthetic sense
had a little to pay for this Chad being unmistakeably and wasnt it a matter
of the confounded grey hair again handsomer than he had ever promised That
however fell in perfectly with what Strether had said They had no desire to
keep down his proper expansion and he wouldnt be less to their purpose for not
looking as he had too often done of old only bold and wild There was indeed a
signal particular in which he would distinctly be more so Strether didnt as
he talked absolutely follow himself he only knew he was clutching his thread
and that he held it from moment to moment a little tighter his mere
uninterruptedness during the few minutes helped him to do that He had
frequently for a month turned over what he should say on this very occasion
and he seemed at last to have said nothing he had thought of everything was so
totally different
But in spite of all he had put the flag at the window This was what he had
done and there was a minute during which he affected himself as having shaken
it hard flapped it with a mighty flutter straight in front of his companions
nose It gave him really almost the sense of having already acted his part The
momentary relief as if from the knowledge that nothing of that at least could
be undone sprang from a particular cause the cause that had flashed into
operation in Miss Gostreys box with direct apprehension with amazed
recognition and that had been concerned since then in every throb of his
consciousness What it came to was that with an absolutely new quantity to deal
with one simply couldnt know The new quantity was represented by the fact that
Chad had been made over That was all whatever it was it was everything
Strether had never seen the thing so done before it was perhaps a speciality
of Paris If one had been present at the process one might little by little have
mastered the result but he was face to face as matters stood with the
finished business It had freely been noted for him that he might be received as
a dog among skittles but that was on the basis of the old quantity He had
originally thought of lines and tones as things to be taken but these
possibilities had now quite melted away There was no computing at all what the
young man before him would think or feel or say on any subject whatever This
intelligence Strether had afterwards to account for his nervousness
reconstituted as he might just as he had also reconstituted the promptness with
which Chad had corrected his uncertainty An extraordinarily short time had been
required for the correction and there had ceased to be anything negative in his
companions face and air as soon as it was made »Your engagement to my mother
has become then what they call here a fait accompli« it had consisted the
determinant touch in nothing more than that
Well that was enough Strether had felt while his answer hung fire He had
felt at the same time however that nothing could less become him than that it
should hang fire too long »Yes« he said brightly »it was on the happy
settlement of the question that I started You see therefore to what tune Im in
your family Moreover« he added »Ive been supposing youd suppose it«
»Oh Ive been supposing it for a long time and what you tell me helps me to
understand that you should want to do something To do something I mean« said
Chad »to commemorate an event so what do they call it so auspicious I see
you make out and not unnaturally« he continued »that bringing me home in
triumph as a sort of weddingpresent to Mother would commemorate it better than
anything else You want to make a bonfire in fact« he laughed »and you pitch
me on Thank you thank you« he laughed again
He was altogether easy about it and this made Strether now see how at
bottom and in spite of the shade of shyness that really cost him nothing he
had from the first moment been easy about everything The shade of shyness was
mere good taste People with manners formed could apparently have as one of
their best cards the shade of shyness too He had leaned a little forward to
speak his elbows were on the table and the inscrutable new face that he had
got somewhere and somehow was brought by the movement nearer to his critics
There was a fascination for that critic in its not being this ripe physiognomy
the face that under observation at least he had originally carried away from
Woollett Strether found a certain freedom on his own side in defining it as
that of a man of the world a formula that indeed seemed to come now in some
degree to his relief that of a man to whom things had happened and were
variously known In gleams in glances the past did perhaps peep out of it but
such lights were faint and instantly merged Chad was brown and thick and
strong and of old Chad had been rough Was all the difference therefore that he
was actually smooth Possibly for that he was smooth was as marked as in the
taste of a sauce or in the rub of a hand The effect of it was general it had
retouched his features drawn them with a cleaner line It had cleared his eyes
and settled his colour and polished his fine square teeth the main ornament of
his face and at the same time that it had given him a form and a surface
almost a design it had toned his voice established his accent encouraged his
smile to more play and his other motions to less He had formerly with a great
deal of action expressed very little and he now expressed whatever was
necessary with almost none at all It was as if in short he had really copious
perhaps but shapeless been put into a firm mould and turned successfully out
The phenomenon Strether kept eyeing it as a phenomenon an eminent case was
marked enough to be touched by the finger He finally put his hand across the
table and laid it on Chads arm »If youll promise me here on the spot and
giving me your word of honour to break straight off youll make the future
the real right thing for all of us alike Youll ease off the strain of this
decent but none the less acute suspense in which Ive for so many days been
waiting for you and let me turn in to rest I shall leave you with my blessing
and go to bed in peace«
Chad again fell back at this and his hands pocketed settled himself a
little in which posture he looked though he rather anxiously smiled only the
more earnest Then Strether seemed to see that he was really nervous and he
took that as what he would have called a wholesome sign The only mark of it
hitherto had been his more than once taking off and putting on his widebrimmed
crush hat He had at this moment made the motion again to remove it then had
only pushed it back so that it hung informally on his strong young grizzled
crop It was a touch that gave the note of the familiar the intimate and the
belated to their quiet colloquy and it was indeed by some such trivial aid
that Strether became aware at the same moment of something else The observation
was at any rate determined in him by some light too fine to distinguish from so
many others but it was none the less sharply determined Chad looked
unmistakeably during these instants well as Strether put it to himself all
he was worth Our friend had a sudden apprehension of what that would on certain
sides be He saw him in a flash as the young man marked out by women and for a
concentrated minute the dignity the comparative austerity as he funnily
fancied it of this character affected him almost with awe There was an
experience on his interlocutors part that looked out at him from under the
displaced hat and that looked out moreover by a force of its own the deep fact
of its quantity and quality and not through Chads intending bravado or
swagger That was then the way men marked out by women were and also the men
by whom the women were doubtless in turn sufficiently distinguished It affected
Strether for thirty seconds as a relevant truth a truth which however the
next minute had fallen into its relation »Cant you imagine there being some
questions« Chad asked »that a fellow however much impressed by your charming
way of stating things would like to put to you first«
»Oh yes easily Im here to answer everything I think I can even tell you
things of the greatest interest to you that you wont know enough to ask me
Well take as many days to it as you like But I want« Strether wound up »to
go to bed now«
»Really«
Chad had spoken in such surprise that he was amused »Cant you believe it
with what you put me through«
The young man seemed to consider »Oh I havent put you through much yet«
»Do you mean theres so much more to come« Strether laughed »All the more
reason then that I should gird myself« And as if to mark what he felt he could
by this time count on he was already on his feet
Chad still seated stayed him with a hand against him as he passed
between their table and the next »Oh we shall get on«
The tone was as who should say everything Strether could have desired and
quite as good the expression of face with which the speaker had looked up at him
and kindly held him All these things lacked was their not showing quite so much
as the fruit of experience Yes experience was what Chad did play on him if he
didnt play any grossness of defiance Of course experience was in a manner
defiance but it wasnt at any rate rather indeed quite the contrary
grossness which was so much gained He fairly grew older Strether thought
while he himself so reasoned Then with his mature pat of his visitors arm he
also got up and there had been enough of it all by this time to make the
visitor feel that something was settled Wasnt it settled that he had at least
the testimony of Chads own belief in a settlement Strether found himself
treating Chads profession that they would get on as a sufficient basis for
going to bed He hadnt nevertheless after this gone to bed directly for when
they had again passed out together into the mild bright night a check had
virtually sprung from nothing more than a small circumstance which might have
acted only as confirming quiescence There were people expressive sound
projected light still abroad and after they had taken in for a moment through
everything the great clear architectural street they turned off in tacit union
to the quarter of Strethers hotel »Of course« Chad here abruptly began »of
course Mothers making things out with you about me has been natural and of
course also youve had a good deal to go upon Still you must have filled out«
He had stopped leaving his friend to wonder a little what point he wished
to make and this it was that enabled Strether meanwhile to make one »Oh weve
never pretended to go into detail We werent in the least bound to that It was
filling out enough to miss you as we did«
But Chad rather oddly insisted though under the high lamp at their corner
where they paused he had at first looked as if touched by Strethers allusion
to the long sense at home of his absence »What I mean is you must have
imagined«
»Imagined what«
»Well horrors«
It affected Strether horrors were so little superficially at least in
this robust and reasoning image But he was none the less there to be veracious
»Yes I dare say we have imagined horrors But wheres the harm if we havent
been wrong«
Chad raised his face to the lamp and it was one of the moments at which he
had in his extraordinary way most his air of designedly showing himself It
was as if at these instants he just presented himself his identity so rounded
off his palpable presence and his massive young manhood as such a link in the
chain as might practically amount to a kind of demonstration It was as if and
how but anomalously he couldnt after all help thinking sufficiently well of
these things to let them go for what they were worth What could there be in
this for Strether but the hint of some selfrespect some sense of power oddly
perverted something latent and beyond access ominous and perhaps enviable The
intimation had the next thing in a flash taken on a name a name on which our
friend seized as he asked himself if he werent perhaps really dealing with an
irreducible young Pagan This description he quite jumped at it had a sound
that gratified his mental ear so that of a sudden he had already adopted it
Pagan yes that was wasnt it what Chad would logically be It was what he
must be It was what he was The idea was a clue and instead of darkening the
prospect projected a certain clearness Strether made out in this quick ray
that a Pagan was perhaps at the pass they had come to the thing most wanted at
Woollett Theyd be able to do with one a good one hed find an opening
yes and Strethers imagination even now prefigured and accompanied the first
appearance there of the rousing personage He had only the slight discomfort of
feeling as the young man turned away from the lamp that his thought had in the
momentary silence possibly been guessed »Well Ive no doubt« said Chad
»youve come near enough The details as you say dont matter It has been
generally the case that Ive let myself go But Im coming round Im not so
bad now« With which they walked on again to Strethers hotel
»Do you mean« the latter asked as they approached the door »that there
isnt any woman with you now«
»But pray what has that to do with it«
»Why its the whole question«
»Of my going home« Chad was clearly surprised »Oh not much Do you think
that when I want to go any one will have any power «
»To keep you« Strether took him straight up »from carrying out your
wish Well our idea has been thnt somebody has hitherto or a good many
persons perhaps kept you pretty well from wanting Thats what if youre in
anybodys hands may again happen You dont answer my question« he kept it
up »but if you arent in anybodys hands so much the better Theres nothing
then but what makes for your going«
Chad turned this over »I dont answer your question« He spoke quite
without resenting it »Well such questions have always a rather exaggerated
side One doesnt know quite what you mean by being in womens hands Its all
so vague One is when one isnt One isnt when one is And then one cant quite
give people away« He seemed kindly to explain »Ive never got stuck so very
hard and as against anything at any time really better I dont think Ive
ever been afraid« There was something in it that held Strether to wonder and
this give him time to go on He broke out as with a more helpful thought »Dont
you know how I like Paris itself«
The upshot was indeed to make our friend marvel »Oh if thats all thats
the matter with you « It was he who almost showed resentment
Chads smile of a truth more than met it »But isnt that enough«
Strether hesitated but it came out »Not enough for your mother« Spoken
however it sounded a trifle odd the effect of which was that Chad broke into
a laugh Strether at this succumbed as well though with extreme brevity
»Permit us to have still our theory But if you are so free and so strong youre
inexcusable Ill write in the morning« he added with decision »Ill say Ive
got you«
This appeared to open for Chad a new interest »How often do you write«
»Oh perpetually«
»And at great length«
Strether had become a little impatient »I hope its not found too great«
»Oh Im sure not And you hear as often«
Again Strether paused »As often as I deserve«
»Mother writes« said Chad »a lovely letter«
Strether before the closed portecochère fixed him a moment »Its more
my boy than you do But our suppositions dont matter« he added »if youre
actually not entangled«
Chads pride seemed none the less a little touched »I never was that let
me insist I always had my own way« With which he pursued »And I have it at
present«
»Then what are you here for What has kept you« Strether asked »if you
have been able to leave«
It made Chad after a stare throw himself back »Do you think ones kept
only by women« His surprise and his verbal emphasis rang out so clear in the
still street that Strether winced till he remembered the safety of their English
speech »Is that« the young man demanded »what they think at Woollett« At the
good faith in the question Strether had changed colour feeling that as he
would have said he had put his foot in it He had appeared stupidly to
misrepresent what they thought at Woollett but before he had time to rectify
Chad again was upon him »I must say then you show a low mind«
It so fell in unhappily for Strether with that reflexion of his own
prompted in him by the pleasant air of the Boulevard Malesherbes that its
disconcerting force was rather unfairly great It was a dig that administered
by himself and administered even to poor Mrs Newsome was no more than
salutary but administered by Chad and quite logically it came nearer
drawing blood They hadnt a low mind nor any approach to one yet
incontestably they had worked and with a certain smugness on a basis that
might be turned against them Chad had at any rate pulled his visitor up he had
even pulled up his admirable mother he had absolutely by a turn of the wrist
and a jerk of the farflung noose pulled up in a bunch Woollett browsing in
its pride There was no doubt Woollett had insisted on his coarseness and what
he at present stood there for in the sleeping street was by his manner of
striking the other note to make of such insistence a preoccupation compromising
to the insisters It was exactly as if they had imputed to him a vulgarity that
he had by a mere gesture caused to fall from him The devil of the case was that
Strether felt it by the same stroke as falling straight upon himself He had
been wondering a minute ago if the boy werent a Pagan and he found himself
wondering now if he werent by chance a gentleman It didnt in the least on
the spot spring up helpfully for him that a person couldnt at the same time be
both There was nothing at this moment in the air to challenge the combination
there was everything to give it on the contrary something of a flourish It
struck Strether into the bargain as doing something to meet the most difficult
of the questions though perhaps indeed only by substituting another Wouldnt
it be precisely by having learned to be a gentleman that he had mastered the
consequent trick of looking so well that one could scarce speak to him straight
But what in the world was the clue to such a prime producing cause There were
too many clues then that Strether still lacked and these clues to clues were
among them What it accordingly amounted to for him was that he had to take full
in the face a fresh attribution of ignorance He had grown used by this time to
reminders especially from his own lips of what he didnt know but he had
borne them because in the first place they were private and because in the
second they practically conveyed a tribute He didnt know what was bad and
as others didnt know how little he knew it he could put up with his state
But if he didnt know in so important a particular what was good Chad at
least was now aware he didnt and that for some reason affected our friend as
curiously public It was in fact an exposed condition that the young man left
him in long enough for him to feel its chill till he saw fit in a word
generously again to cover him This last was in truth what Chad quite gracefully
did But he did it as with a simple thought that met the whole of the case »Oh
Im all right« It was what Strether had rather bewilderedly to go to bed on
II
It really looked true moreover from the way Chad was to behave after this He
was full of attentions to his mothers ambassador in spite of which all the
while the latters other relations rather remarkably contrived to assert
themselves Strethers sittings pen in hand with Mrs Newsome up in his own room
were broken vet they were richer and they were more than ever interspersed
with the hours in which he reported himself in a different fashion but with
scarce less earnestness and fulness to Maria Gostrey Now that as he would
have expressed it he had really something to talk about he found himself in
respect to any oddity that might reside for him in the double connexion at once
more aware and more indifferent He had been fine to Mrs Newsome about his
useful friend but it had begun to haunt his imagination that Chad taking up
again for her benefit a pen too long disused might possibly be finer It
wouldnt at all do he saw that anything should come up for him at Chads hand
but what specifically was to have come the greatest divergence from which would
be precisely the element of any lubrication of their intercourse by levity It
was accordingly to forestall such an accident that he frankly put before the
young man the several facts just as they had occurred of his funny alliance
He spoke of these facts pleasantly and obligingly as the whole story and felt
that he might qualify the alliance as funny if he remained sufficiently grave
about it He fllattered himself that he even exaggerated the wild freedom of his
original encounter with the wonderful lady he was scrupulously definite about
the absurd conditions in which they had made acquaintance their having picked
each other up almost in the street and he had finest inspiration of all a
conception of carrying the war into the enemys country by showing surprise at
the enemys ignorance
He had always had a notion that this last was the grand style of fighting
the greater therefore the reason for it as he couldnt remember that he had
ever before fought in the grand style Every one according to this knew Miss
Gostrey how came it Chad didnt know her The difficulty the impossibility
was really to escape it Strether put on him by what he took for granted the
burden of proof of the contrary This tone was so far successful as that Chad
quite appeared to recognise her as a person whose fame had reached him but
against his acquaintance with whom much mischance had worked He made the point
at the same time that his social relations such as they could be called were
perhaps not to the extent Strether supposed with the rising flood of their
compatriots He hinted at his having more and more given way to a different
principle of selection the moral of which seemed to be that he went about
little in the colony For the moment certainly he had quite another interest It
was deep what he understood and Strether for himself could only so observe
it He couldnt see as yet how deep Might he not all too soon For there was
really too much of their question that Chad had already committed himself to
liking He liked to begin with his prospective stepfather which was
distinctly what had not been on the cards His hating him was the untowardness
for which Strether had been best prepared he hadnt expected the boys actual
form to give him more to do than his imputed It gave him more through
suggesting that he must somehow make up to himself for not being sure he was
sufficiently disagreeable That had really been present to him as his only way
to be sure he was sufficiently thorough The point was that if Chads tolerance
of his thoroughness were insincere were but the best of devices for gaining
time it none the less did treat everything as tacitly concluded
That seemed at the end of ten days the upshot of the abundant the recurrent
talk through which Strether poured into him all it concerned him to know put
him in full possession of facts and figures Never cutting these colloquies
short by a minute Chad behaved looked and spoke as if he were rather heavily
perhaps even a trifle gloomily but none the less fundamentally and comfortably
free He made no crude profession of eagerness to yield but he asked the most
intelligent questions probed at moments abruptly even deeper than his
friends layer of information justified by these touches the native estimate of
his latent stuff and had in every way the air of trying to live reflectively
into the square bright picture He walked up and down in front of this
production sociably took Strethers arm at the points at which he stopped
surveyed it repeatedly from the right and from the left inclined a critical
head to either quarter and while he puffed a still more critical cigarette
animadverted to his companion on this passage and that Strether sought relief
there were hours when he required it in repeating himself it was in truth not
to be blinked that Chad had a way The main question as yet was of what it was a
way to It made vulgar questions no more easy but that was unimportant when all
questions save those of his own asking had dropped That he was free was answer
enough and it wasnt quite ridiculous that this freedom should end by
presenting itself as what was difficult to move His changed state his lovely
home his beautiful things his easy talk his very appetite for Strether
insatiable and when all was said flattering what were such marked matters
all but the notes of his freedom He had the effect of making a sacrifice of it
just in these handsome forms to his visitor which was mainly the reason the
visitor was privately for the time a little out of countenance Strether was
at this period again and again thrown back on a felt need to remodel somehow his
plan He fairly caught himself shooting rueful glances shy looks of pursuit
toward the embodied influence the definite adversary who had by a stroke of
her own failed him and on a fond theory of whose palpable presence he had under
Mrs Newsomes inspiration altogether proceeded He had once or twice in
secret literally expressed the irritated wish that she would come out and find
her
He couldnt quite yet force it upon Woollett that such a career such a
perverted young life showed after all a certain plausible side did in the case
before them flaunt something like an impunity for the social man but he could
at least treat himself to the statement that would prepare him for the sharpest
echo This echo as distinct over there in the dry thin air as some shrill
heading above a column of print seemed to reach him even as he wrote »He says
theres no woman« he could hear Mrs Newsome report in capitals almost of
newspaper size to Mrs Pocock and he could focus in Mrs Pocock the response
of the reader of the journal He could see in the younger ladys face the
earnestness of her attention and catch the full scepticism of her but slightly
delayed »What is there then« Just so he could again as little miss the mothers
clear decision »Theres plenty of disposition no doubt to pretend there
isnt« Strether had after posting his letter the whole scene out and it was
a scene during which coming and going as befell he kept his eye not least
upon the daughter He had his fine sense of the conviction Mrs Pocock would
take occasion to reaffirm a conviction bearing as he had from the first
deeply divined it to bear on Mr Strethers essential inaptitude She had
looked him in his conscious eyes even before he sailed and that she didnt
believe he would find the woman had been written in her look Hadnt she at the
best but a scant faith in his ability to find women It wasnt even as if he had
found her mother so much more to her discrimination had her mother performed
the finding Her mother had in a case her private judgement of which remained
educative of Mrs Pococks critical sense found the man The man owed his
unchallenged state in general to the fact that Mrs Newsomes discoveries were
accepted at Woollett but he knew in his bones our friend did how almost
irresistibly Mrs Pocock would now be moved to show what she thought of his own
Give her a free hand would be the moral and the woman would soon be found
His impression of Miss Gostrey after her introduction to Chad was meanwhile
an impression of a person almost unnaturally on her guard He struck himself as
at first unable to extract from her what he wished though indeed of what he
wished at this special juncture he would doubtless have contrived to make but a
crude statement It sifted and settled nothing to put to her tout bêtement as
she often said »Do you like him eh« thanks to his feeling it actually the
least of his needs to heap up the evidence in the young mans favour He
repeatedly knocked at her door to let her have it afresh that Chads case
whatever else of minor interest it might yield was first and foremost a
miracle almost monstrous It was the alteration of the entire man and was so
signal an instance that nothing else for the intelligent observer could
could it signify »Its a plot« he declared »theres more in it than meets
the eye« He gave the rein to his fancy »Its a plant«
His fancy seemed to please her »Whose then«
»Well the party responsible is I suppose the fate that waits for one the
dark doom that rides What I mean is that with such elements one cant count
Ive but my poor individual my modest human means It isnt playing the game to
turn on the uncanny All ones energy goes to facing it to tracking it One
wants confound it dont vou see« he confessed with a queer face »one wants
to enjoy anything so rare Call it then life« he puzzled it out »call it
poor dear old life simply that springs the surprise Nothing alters the fact
that the surprise is paralysing or at any rate engrossing all practically
hang it that one sees that one can see«
Her silences were never barren nor even dull »Is that what youve written
home«
He tossed it off »Oh dear yes«
She had another pause while across her carpets he had another walk »If
you dont look out youll have them straight over«
»Oh but Ive said hell go back«
»And will he« Miss Gostrey asked
The special tone of it made him pulling up look at her long »Whats that
but just the question Ive spent treasures of patience and ingenuity in giving
you by the sight of him after everything had led up every facility to
answer What is it but just the thing I came here today to get out of you Will
he«
»No he wont« she said at last »Hes not free«
The air of it held him »Then youve all the while known «
»Ive known nothing but what Ive seen and I wonder« she declared with
some impatience »that you didnt see as much It was enough to be with him
there «
»In the box Yes« he rather blankly urged
»Well to feel sure«
»Sure of what«
She got up from her chair at this with a nearer approach than she had ever
yet shown to dismay at his dimness She even fairly pausing for it spoke with
a shade of pity »Guess«
It was a shade fairly that brought a flush into his face so that for a
moment as they waited together their difference was between them »You mean
that just your hour with him told you so much of his story Very good Im not
such a fool on my side as that I dont understand you or as that I didnt in
some degree understand him That he has done what he liked most isnt among any
of us a matter the least in dispute Theres equally little question at this
time of day of what it is he does like most But Im not talking« he reasonably
explained »of any mere wretch he may still pick up Im talking of some person
who in his present situation may have held her own may really have counted«
»Thats exactly what I am« said Miss Gostrey But she as quickly made her
point »I thought you thought or that they think at Woollett that thats
what mere wretches necessarily do Mere wretches necessarily dont« she
declared with spirit »There must behind every appearance to the contrary
still be somebody somebody whos not a mere wretch since we accept the
miracle What else but such a somebody can such a miracle be«
He took it in »Because the fact itself is the woman«
»A woman Some woman or other Its one of the things that have to be«
»But you mean then at least a good one«
»A good woman« She threw up her arms with a laugh »I should call her
excellent«
»Then why does he deny her«
Miss Gostrey thought a moment »Because shes too good to admit Dont you
see« she went on »how she accounts for him«
Strether clearly more and more did see yet it made him also see other
things »But isnt what we want that he shall account for her«
»Well he does What you have before you is his way You must forgive him if
it isnt quite outspoken In Paris such debts are tacit«
Strether could imagine but still »Even when the womans good«
Again she laughed out »Yes and even when the man is Theres always a
caution in such cases« she more seriously explained »for what it may seem to
show Theres nothing thats taken as showing so much here as sudden unnatural
goodness«
»Ah then youre speaking now« Strether said »of people who are not nice«
»I delight« she replied »in your classifications But do you want me« she
asked »to give you in the matter on this ground the wisest advice Im capable
of Dont consider her dont judge her at all in herself Consider her and
judge her only in Chad«
He had the courage at least of his companions logic »Because then I shall
like her« He almost looked with his quick imagination as if he already did
though seeing at once also the full extent of how little it would suit his book
»But is that what I came out for«
She had to confess indeed that it wasnt But there was something else
»Dont make up your mind There are all sorts of things You havent seen him
all«
This on his side Strether recognised but his acuteness none the less showed
him the danger »Yes but if the more I see the better he seems«
Well she found something »That may be but his disavowal of her isnt
all the same pure consideration Theres a hitch« She made it out »Its the
effort to sink her«
Strether winced at the image »To sink «
»Well I mean theres a struggle and a part of it is just what he hides
Take time thats the only way not to make some mistake that youll regret
Then youll see He does really want to shake her off«
Our friend had by this time so got into the vision that he almost gasped
»After all she has done for him«
Miss Gostrey gave him a look which broke the next moment into a wonderful
smile »Hes not so good as you think«
They remained with him these words promising him in their character of
warning considerable help but the support he tried to draw from them found
itself on each renewal of contact with Chad defeated by something else What
could it be this disconcerting force he asked himself but the sense
constantly renewed that Chad was quite in fact insisted on being as good as
he thought It seemed somehow as if he couldnt but be as good from the moment
he wasnt as bad There was a succession of days at all events when contact with
him and in its immediate effect as if it could produce no other elbowed out
of Strethers consciousness everything but itself Little Bilham once more
pervaded the scene but little Bilham became even in a higher degree than he had
originally been one of the numerous forms of the inclusive relation a
consequence promoted to our friends sense by two or three incidents with
which we have yet to make acquaintance Waymarsh himself for the occasion was
drawn into the eddy it absolutely though but temporarily swallowed him down
and there were days when Strether seemed to bump against him as a sinking
swimmer might brush a submarine object The fathomless medium held them Chads
manner was the fathomless medium and our friend felt as if they passed each
other in their deep immersion with the round impersonal eye of silent fish It
was practically produced between them that Waymarsh was giving him then his
chance and the shade of discomfort that Strether drew from the allowance
resembled not a little the embarrassment he had known at school as a boy when
members of his family had been present at exhibitions He could perform before
strangers but relatives were fatal and it was now as if comparatively
Waymarsh were a relative He seemed to hear him say »Strike up then« and to
enjoy a foretaste of conscientious domestic criticism He had struck up so far
as he actually could Chad knew by this time in profusion what he wanted and
what vulgar violence did his fellow pilgrim expect of him when he had really
emptied his mind It went somehow to and fro that what poor Waymarsh meant was
»I told you so that youd lose your immortal soul« but it was also fairly
explicit that Strether had his own challenge and that since they must go to the
bottom of things he wasted no more virtue in watching Chad than Chad wasted in
watching him His dip for dutys sake where was it worse than Waymarshs own
For he neednt have stopped resisting and refusing neednt have parleyed at
that rate with the foe
The strolls over Paris to see something or call somewhere were accordingly
inevitable and natural and the late sessions in the wondrous troisième the
lovely home when men dropped in and the picture composed more suggestively
through the haze of tobacco of music more or less good and of talk more or less
polyglot were on a principle not to be distinguished from that of the mornings
and the afternoons Nothing Strether had to recognise as he leaned back and
smoked could well less resemble a scene of violence than even the liveliest of
these occasions They were occasions of discussion none the less and Strether
had never in his life heard so many opinions on so many subjects There were
opinions at Woollett but only on three or four The differences were there to
match if they were doubtless deep though few they were quiet they were as
might be said almost as shy as if people had been ashamed of them People
showed little diffidence about such things on the other hand in the Boulevard
Malesherbes and were so far from being ashamed of them or indeed of anything
else that they often seemed to have invented them to avert those agreements
that destroy the taste of talk No one had ever done that at Woollett though
Strether could remember times when he himself had been tempted to it without
quite knowing why He saw why at present he had but wanted to promote
intercourse
These however were but parenthetic memories and the turn taken by his
affair on the whole was positively that if his nerves were on the stretch it was
because he missed violence When he asked himself if none would then in
connexion with it ever come at all he might almost have passed as wondering
how to provoke it It would be too absurd if such a vision as that should have
to be invoked for relief it was already marked enough as absurd that he should
actually have begun with flutters and dignities on the score of a single
accepted meal What sort of a brute had he expected Chad to be anyway
Strether had occasion to make the enquiry but was careful to make it in private
He could himself comparatively recent as it was it was truly but the fact of
a few days since focus his primal crudity but he would on the approach of an
observer as if handling an illicit possession have slipped the reminiscence
out of sight There were echoes of it still in Mrs Newsomes letters and there
were moments when these echoes made him exclaim on her want of tact He blushed
of course at once still more for the explanation than for the ground of it it
came to him in time to save his manners that she couldnt at the best become
tactful as quickly as he Her tact had to reckon with the Atlantic Ocean the
General PostOffice and the extravagant curve of the globe
Chad had one day offered tea at the Boulevard Malesherbes to a chosen few a
group again including the unobscured Miss Barrace and Strether had on coming
out walked away with the acquaintance whom in his letters to Mrs Newsome he
always spoke of as the little artistman He had had full occasion to mention
him as the other party so oddly to the only close personal alliance
observation had as yet detected in Chads existence Little Bilhams way this
afternoon was not Strethers but he had none the less kindly come with him and
it was somehow a part of his kindness that as it had sadly begun to rain they
suddenly found themselves seated for conversation at a café in which they had
taken refuge He had passed no more crowded hour in Chads society than the one
just ended he had talked with Miss Barrace who had reproached him with not
having come to see her and he had above all hit on a happy thought for causing
Waymarshs tension to relax Something might possibly be extracted for the
latter from the idea of his success with that lady whose quick apprehension of
what might amuse her had given Strether a free hand What had she meant if not
to ask whether she couldnt help him with his splendid encumbrance and mightnt
the sacred rage at any rate be kept a little in abeyance by thus creating for
his comrades mind even in a world of irrelevance the possibility of a relation
What was it but a relation to be regarded as so decorative and in especial on
the strength of it to be whirled away amid flounces and feathers in a coupé
lined by what Strether could make out with dark blue brocade He himself had
never been whirled away never at least in a coupé and behind a footman he had
driven with Miss Gostrey in cabs with Mrs Pocock a few times in an open
buggy with Mrs Newsome in a fourseated cart and occasionally up at the
mountains on a buckboard but his friends actual adventure transcended his
personal experience He now showed his companion soon enough indeed how
inadequate as a general monitor this last queer quantity could once more feel
itself
»What game under the sun is he playing« He signified the next moment that
his allusion was not to the fat gentleman immersed in dominoes on whom his eyes
had begun by resting but to their host of the previous hour as to whom there
on the velvet bench with a final collapse of all consistency he treated
himself to the comfort of indiscretion »Where do you see him come out«
Little Bilham in meditation looked at him with a kindness almost paternal
»Dont you like it over here«
Strether laughed out for the tone was indeed droll he let himself go
»What has that to do with it The only thing Ive any business to like is to
feel that Im moving him Thats why I ask you whether you believe I am Is the
creature« and he did his best to show that he simply wished to ascertain
honest
His companion looked responsible but looked it through a small dim smile
»What creature do you mean«
It was on this that they did have for a little a mute interchange »Is it
untrue that hes free How then« Strether asked wondering »does he arrange his
life«
»Is the creature you mean Chad himself« little Bilham said
Strether here with a rising hope just thought »We must take one of them
at a time« But his coherence lapsed »Is there some woman Of whom hes really
afraid of course I mean or who does with him what she likes«
»Its awfully charming of you« Bilham presently remarked »not to have
asked me that before«
»Oh Im not fit for my job«
The exclamation had escaped our friend but it made little Bilham more
deliberate »Chads a rare case« he luminously observed »Hes awfully
changed« he added
»Then you see it too«
»The way he has improved Oh yes I think every one must see it But Im
not sure« said little Bilham »that I didnt like him about as well in his
other state«
»Then this is really a new state altogether«
»Well« the young man after a moment returned »Im not sure he was really
meant by nature to be quite so good Its like the new edition of an old book
that one has been fond of revised and amended brought up to date but not
quite the thing one knew and loved However that may be at all events« he
pursued »I dont think you know that hes really playing as you call it any
game I believe he really wants to go back and take up a career Hes capable of
one you know that will improve and enlarge him still more He wont then«
little Bilham continued to remark »be my pleasant wellrubbed oldfashioned
volume at all But of course Im beastly immoral Im afraid it would be a funny
world altogether a world with things the way I like them I ought I dare say
to go home and go into business myself Only Id simply rather die simply And
Ive not the least difficulty in making up my mind not to and in knowing
exactly why and in defending my ground against all comers All the same« he
wound up »I assure you I dont say a word against it for himself I mean to
Chad I seem to see it as much the best thing for him You see hes not happy«
»Do I« Strether stared »Ive been supposing I see just the opposite an
extraordinary case of the equilibrium arrived at and assured«
»Oh theres a lot behind it«
»Ah there you are« Strether exclaimed »Thats just what I want to get at
You speak of your familiar volume altered out of recognition Well whos the
editor«
Little Bilham looked before him a minute in silence »He ought to get
married That would do it And he wants to«
»Wants to marry her«
Again little Bilham waited and with a sense that he had information
Strether scarce knew what was coming »He wants to be free He isnt used you
see« the young man explained in his lucid way »to being so good«
Strether hesitated »Then I may take it from you that he is good«
His companion matched his pause but making it up with a quiet fulness
»Well then why isnt he free He swears to me he is but meanwhile does
nothing except of course that hes so kind to me to prove it and couldnt
really act much otherwise if he werent My question to you just now was exactly
on this queer impression of his diplomacy as if instead of really giving ground
his line were to keep me on here and set me a bad example«
As the halfhour meanwhile had ebbed Strether paid his score and the waiter
was presently in the act of counting out change Our friend pushed back to him a
fraction of it with which after an emphatic recognition the personage in
question retreated »You give too much« little Bilham permitted himself
benevolently to observe
»Oh I always give too much« Strether helplessly sighed »But you dont« he
went on as if to get quickly away from the contemplation of that doom »answer
my question Why isnt he free«
Little Bilham had got up as if the transaction with the waiter had been a
signal and had already edged out between the table and the divan The effect of
this was that a minute later they had quitted the place the gratified waiter
alert again at the open door Strether had found himself deferring to his
companions abruptness as to a hint that he should be answered as soon as they
were more isolated This happened when after a few steps in the outer air they
had turned the next corner There our friend had kept it up »Why isnt he free
if hes good«
Little Bilham looked him full in the face »Because its a virtuous
attachment«
This had settled the question so effectually for the time that is for the
next few days that it had given Strether almost a new lease of life It must
be added however that thanks to his constant habit of shaking the bottle in
which life handed him the wine of experience he presently found the taste of
the lees rising as usual into his draught His imagination had in other words
already dealt with his young friends assertion of which it had made something
that sufficiently came out on the very next occasion of his seeing Maria
Gostrey This occasion moreover had been determined promptly by a new
circumstance a circumstance he was the last man to leave her for a day in
ignorance of »When I said to him last night« he immediately began »that
without some definite word from him now that will enable me to speak to them
over there of our sailing or at least of mine giving them some sort of date
my responsibility becomes uncomfortable and my situation awkward when I said
that to him what do you think was his reply« And then as she this time gave it
up »Why that he has two particular friends two ladies mother and daughter
about to arrive in Paris coming back from an absence and that he wants me so
furiously to meet them know them and like them that I shall oblige him by
kindly not bringing our business to a crisis till he has had a chance to see
them again himself Is that« Strether enquired »the way hes going to try to
get off These are the people« he explained »that he must have gone down to
see before I arrived Theyre the best friends he has in the world and they
take more interest than any one else in what concerns him As Im his next best
he sees a thousand reasons why we should comfortably meet He hasnt broached
the question sooner because their return was uncertain seemed in fact for the
present impossible But he more than intimates that if you can believe it
their desire to make my acquaintance has had to do with their surmounting
difficulties«
»Theyre dying to see you« Miss Gostrey asked
»Dying Of course« said Strether »theyre the virtuous attachment« He had
already told her about that had seen her the day after his talk with little
Bilham and they had then threshed out together the bearing of the revelation
She had helped him to put into it the logic in which little Bilham had left it
slightly deficient Strether hadnt pressed him as to the object of the
preference so unexpectedly described feeling in the presence of it with one of
his irrepressible scruples a delicacy from which he had in the quest of the
quite other article worked himself sufficiently free He had held off as on a
small principle of pride from permitting his young friend to mention a name
wishing to make with this the great point that Chads virtuous attachments were
none of his business He had wanted from the first not to think too much of his
dignity but that was no reason for not allowing it any little benefit that
might turn up He had often enough wondered to what degree his interference
might pass for interested so that there was no want of luxury in letting it be
seen whenever he could that he didnt interfere That had of course at the same
time not deprived him of the further luxury of much private astonishment which
however he had reduced to some order before communicating his knowledge When he
had done this at last it was with the remark that surprised as Miss Gostrey
might like himself at first be she would probably agree with him on reflexion
that such an account of the matter did after all fit the confirmed appearances
Nothing certainly on all the indications could have been a greater change for
him than a virtuous attachment and since they had been in search of the word as
the French called it of that change little Bilhams announcement though so
long and so oddly delayed would serve as well as another She had assured
Strether in fact after a pause that the more she thought of it the more it did
serve and yet her assurance hadnt so weighed with him as that before they
parted he hadnt ventured to challenge her sincerity Didnt she believe the
attachment was virtuous he had made sure of her again with the aid of that
question The tidings he brought her on this second occasion were moreover such
as would help him to make surer still
She showed at first none the less as only amused »You say there are two An
attachment to them both then would I suppose almost necessarily be innocent«
Our friend took the point but he had his clue »Maynt he be still in the
stage of not quite knowing which of them mother or daughter he likes best«
She gave it more thought »Oh it must be the daughter at his age«
»Possibly Yet what do we know« Strether asked »about hers She may be old
enough«
»Old enough for what«
»Why to marry Chad That may be you know what they want And if Chad wants
it too and little Bilham wants it and even we at a pinch could do with it
that is if she doesnt prevent repatriation why it may be plain sailing yet«
It was always the case for him in these counsels that each of his remarks
as it came seemed to drop into a deeper well He had at all events to wait a
moment to hear the slight splash of this one »I dont see why if Mr Newsome
wants to marry the young lady he hasnt already done it or hasnt been prepared
with some statement to you about it And if he both wants to marry her and is on
good terms with them why isnt he free«
Strether responsively wondered indeed »Perhaps the girl herself doesnt
like him«
»Then why does he speak of them to you as he does«
Strethers mind echoed the question but also again met it »Perhaps its
with the mother hes on good terms«
»As against the daughter«
»Well if shes trying to persuade the daughter to consent to him what
could make him like the mother more Only« Strether threw out »why shouldnt
the daughter consent to him«
»Oh« said Miss Gostrey »maynt it be that every one else isnt quite so
struck with him as you«
»Doesnt regard him you mean as such an eligible young man Is that what
Ive come to« he audibly and rather gravely sought to know »However« he went
on »his marriage is what his mother most desires that is if it will help And
oughtnt any marriage to help They must want him« he had already worked it
out »to be better off Almost any girl he may marry will have a direct
interest in his taking up his chances It wont suit her at least that he shall
miss them«
Miss Gostrey cast about »No you reason well But of course on the other
hand theres always dear old Woollett itself«
»Oh yes« he mused »theres always dear old Woollett itself«
She waited a moment »The young lady maynt find herself able to swallow
that quantity She may think its paying too much she may weigh one thing
against another«
Strether ever restless in such debates took a vague turn »It will all
depend on who she is That of course the proved ability to deal with dear old
Woollett since Im sure she does deal with it is what makes so strongly for
Mamie«
»Mamie«
He stopped short at her tone before her then though seeing that it
represented not vagueness but a momentary embarrassed fulness let his
exclamation come »You surely havent forgotten about Mamie«
»No I havent forgotten about Mamie« she smiled »Theres no doubt
whatever that theres ever so much to be said for her Mamies my girl« she
roundly declared
Strether resumed for a minute his walk »Shes really perfectly lovely you
know Far prettier than any girl Ive seen over here yet«
»Thats precisely on what I perhaps most build« And she mused a moment in
her friends way »I should positively like to take her in hand«
He humoured the fancy though indeed finally to deprecate it »Oh but dont
in your zeal go over to her I need you most and cant you know be left«
But she kept it up »I wish theyd send her out to me«
»If they knew you« he returned »they would«
»Ah but dont they after all that as Ive understood you youve told
them about me«
He had paused before her again but he continued his course »They will
before as you say Ive done« Then he came out with the point he had wished
after all most to make »It seems to give away now his game This is what he has
been doing keeping me along for He has been waiting for them«
Miss Gostrey drew in her lips »You see a good deal in it«
»I doubt if I see as much as you Do you pretend« he went on »that you
dont see «
»Well what« she pressed him as he paused
»Why that there must be a lot between them and that it has been going on
from the first even from before I came«
She took a minute to answer »Who are they then if its so grave«
»It maynt be grave it may be gay But at any rate its marked Only I
dont know« Strether had to confess »anything about them Their name for
instance was a thing that after little Bilhams information I found it a kind
of refreshment not to feel obliged to follow up«
»Oh« she returned »if you think youve got off «
Her laugh produced in him a momentary gloom »I dont think Ive got off I
only think Im breathing for about five minutes I dare say I shall have at the
best still to get on« A look over it all passed between them and the next
minute he had come back to good humour »I dont meanwhile take the smallest
interest in their name«
»Nor in their nationality American French English Polish«
»I dont care the least little hang« he smiled »for their nationality It
would be nice if theyre Polish« he almost immediately added
»Very nice indeed« The transition kept up her spirits »So you see you do
care«
He did this contention a modified justice »I think I should if they were
Polish Yes« he thought »there might be joy in that«
»Let us then hope for it« But she came after this nearer to the question
»If the girls of the right age of course the mother cant be I mean for the
virtuous attachment If the girls twenty and she cant be less the mother
must be at least forty So it puts the mother out Shes too old for him«
Strether arrested again considered and demurred »Do you think so Do you
think any one would be too old for him Im eighty and Im too young But
perhaps the girl« he continued »isnt twenty Perhaps shes only ten but
such a little dear that Chad finds himself counting her in as an attraction of
the acquaintance Perhaps shes only five Perhaps the mothers but
fiveandtwenty a charming young widow«
Miss Gostrey entertained the suggestion »She is a widow then«
»I havent the least idea« They once more in spite of this vagueness
exchanged a look a look that was perhaps the longest yet It seemed in fact
the next thing to require to explain itself which it did as it could »I only
feel what Ive told you that he has some reason«
Miss Gostreys imagination had taken its own flight »Perhaps shes not a
widow«
Strether seemed to accept the possibility with reserve Still he accepted
it »Then thats why the attachment if its to her is virtuous«
But she looked as if she scarce followed »Why is it virtuous if since
shes free theres nothing to impose on it any condition«
He laughed at her question »Oh I perhaps dont mean as virtuous as that
Your idea is that it can be virtuous in any sense worthy of the name only if
shes not free But what does it become then« he asked »for her«
»Ah thats another matter« He said nothing for a moment and she soon went
on »I dare say youre right at any rate about Mr Newsomes little plan He
has been trying you has been reporting on you to these friends«
Strether meanwhile had had time to think more »Then wheres his
straightness«
»Well as we say its struggling up breaking out asserting itself as it
can We can be on the side you see of his straightness We can help him But
he has made out« said Miss Gostrey »that youll do«
»Do for what«
»Why for them for ces dames He has watched you studied you liked you
and recognised that they must Its a great compliment to you my dear man for
Im sure theyre particular You came out for a success Well« she gaily
declared »youre having it«
He took it from her with momentary patience and then turned abruptly away
It was always convenient to him that there were so many fine things in her room
to look at But the examination of two or three of them appeared soon to have
determined a speech that had little to do with them »You dont believe in it«
»In what«
»In the character of the attachment In its innocence«
But she defended herself »I dont pretend to know anything about it
Everythings possible We must see«
»See« he echoed with a groan »Havent we seen enough«
»I havent« she smiled
»But do you suppose then little Bilham has lied«
»You must find out«
It made him almost turn pale »Find out any more«
He had dropped on a sofa for dismay but she seemed as she stood over him
to have the last word »Wasnt what you came out for to find out all«
Book Fifth
I
The Sunday of the next week was a wonderful day and Chad Newsome had let his
friend know in advance that he had provided for it There had already been a
question of his taking him to see the great Gloriani who was at home on Sunday
afternoons and at whose house for the most part fewer bores were to be met
than elsewhere but the project through some accident had not had instant
effect and now revived in happier conditions Chad had made the point that the
celebrated sculptor had a queer old garden for which the weather spring at
last frank and fair was propitious and two or three of his other allusions
had confirmed for Strether the expectation of something special He had by this
time for all introductions and adventures let himself recklessly go
cherishing the sense that whatever the young man showed him he was showing at
least himself He could have wished indeed so far as this went that Chad were
less of a mere cicerone for he was not without the impression now that the
vision of his game his plan his deep diplomacy did recurrently assert itself
of his taking refuge from the realities of their intercourse in profusely
dispensing as our friend mentally phrased it panem et circenses Our friend
continued to feel rather smothered in flowers though he made in his other
moments the almost angry inference that this was only because of his odious
ascetic suspicion of any form of beauty He periodically assured himself for
his reactions were sharp that he shouldnt reach the truth of anything till he
had at least got rid of that
He had known beforehand that Madame de Vionnet and her daughter would
probably be on view an intimation to that effect having constituted the only
reference again made by Chad to his good friends from the south The effect of
Strethers talk about them with Miss Gostrey had been quite to consecrate his
reluctance to pry something in the very air of Chads silence judged in the
light of that talk offered it to him as a reserve he could markedly match It
shrouded them about with he scarce knew what a consideration a distinction he
was in presence at any rate so far as it placed him there of ladies and the
one thing that was definite for him was that they themselves should be to the
extent of his responsibility in presence of a gentleman Was it because they
were very beautiful very clever or even very good was it for one of these
reasons that Chad was so to speak nursing his effect Did he wish to spring
them in the Woollett phrase with a fuller force to confound his critic
slight though as yet the criticism with some form of merit exquisitely
incalculable The most the critic had at all events asked was whether the
persons in question were French and that enquiry had been but a proper comment
on the sound of their name »Yes That is no« had been Chads reply but he had
immediately added that their English was the most charming in the world so that
if Strether were wanting an excuse for not getting on with them he wouldnt in
the least find one Never in fact had Strether in the mood into which the
place had quickly launched him felt for himself less the need of an excuse
Those he might have found would have been at the worst all for the others the
people before him in whose liberty to be as they were he was aware that he
positively rejoiced His fellow guests were multiplying and these things their
liberty their intensity their variety their conditions at large were in
fusion in the admirable medium of the scene
The place itself was a great impression a small pavilion clearfaced and
sequestered an effect of polished parquet of fine white panel and spare sallow
gilt of decoration delicate and rare in the heart of the Faubourg
SaintGermain and on the edge of a cluster of gardens attached to old noble
houses Far back from streets and unsuspected by crowds reached by a long
passage and a quiet court it was as striking to the unprepared mind he
immediately saw as a treasure dug up giving him too more than anything yet
the note of the range of the immeasurable town and sweeping away as by a last
brave brush his usual landmarks and terms It was in the garden a spacious
cherished remnant out of which a dozen persons had already passed that Chads
host presently met them while the tall birdhaunted trees all of a twitter
with the spring and the weather and the high partywalls on the other side of
which grave hôtels stood off for privacy spoke of survival transmission
association a strong indifferent persistent order The day was so soft that the
little party had practically adjourned to the open air but the open air was in
such conditions all a chamber of state Strether had presently the sense of a
great convent a convent of missions famous for he scarce knew what a nursery
of young priests of scattered shade of straight alleys and chapelbells that
spread its mass in one quarter he had the sense of names in the air of ghosts
at the windows of signs and tokens a whole range of expression all about him
too thick for prompt discrimination
This assault of images became for a moment in the address of the
distinguished sculptor almost formidable Gloriani showed him in such perfect
confidence on Chads introduction of him a fine worn handsome face a face
that was like an open letter in a foreign tongue With his genius in his eyes
his manners on his lips his long career behind him and his honours and rewards
all round the great artist in the course of a single sustained look and a few
words of delight at receiving him affected our friend as a dazzling prodigy of
type Strether had seen in museums in the Luxembourg as well as more
reverently later on in the New York of the billionaires the work of his
hand knowing too that after an earlier time in his native Rome he had migrated
in midcareer to Paris where with a personal lustre almost violent he shone
in a constellation all of which was more than enough to crown him for his
guest with the light with the romance of glory Strether in contact with
that element as he had never yet so intimately been had the consciousness of
opening to it for the happy instant all the windows of his mind of letting
this rather grey interior drink in for once the sun of a clime not marked in his
old geography He was to remember again repeatedly the medallike Italian face
in which every line was an artists own in which time told only as tone and
consecration and he was to recall in especial as the penetrating radiance as
the communication of the illustrious spirit itself the manner in which while
they stood briefly in welcome and response face to face he was held by the
sculptors eyes He wasnt soon to forget them was to think of them all
unconscious unintending preoccupied though they were as the source of the
deepest intellectual sounding to which he had ever been exposed He was in fact
quite to cherish his vision of it to play with it in idle hours only speaking
of it to no one and quite aware he couldnt have spoken without appearing to
talk nonsense Was what it had told him or what it had asked him the greater of
the mysteries Was it the most special flare unequalled supreme of the
æsthetic torch lighting that wondrous world for ever or was it above all the
long straight shaft sunk by a personal acuteness that life had seasoned to
steel Nothing on earth could have been stranger and no one doubtless more
surprised than the artist himself but it was for all the world to Strether just
then as if in the matter of his accepted duty he had positively been on trial
The deep human expertness in Glorianis charming smile oh the terrible life
behind it was flashed upon him as a test of his stuff
Chad meanwhile after having easily named his companion had still more
easily turned away and was already greeting other persons present He was as
easy clever Chad with the great artist as with his obscure compatriot and as
easy with every one else as with either this fell into its place for Strether
and made almost a new light giving him as a concatenation something more he
could enjoy He liked Gloriani but should never see him again of that he was
sufficiently sure Chad accordingly who was wonderful with both of them was a
kind of link for hopeless fancy an implication of possibilities oh if
everything had been different Strether noted at all events that he was thus on
terms with illustrious spirits and also that yes distinctly he hadnt in
the least swaggered about it Our friend hadnt come there only for this figure
of Abel Newsomes son but that presence threatened to affect the observant mind
as positively central Gloriani indeed remembering something and excusing
himself pursued Chad to speak to him and Strether was left musing on many
things One of them was the question of whether since he had been tested he
had passed Did the artist drop him from having made out that he wouldnt do He
really felt just today that he might do better than usual Hadnt he done well
enough so far as that went in being exactly so dazzled and in not having too
as he almost believed wholly hidden from his host that he felt the latters
plummet Suddenly across the garden he saw little Bilham approach and it was
a part of the fit that was on him that as their eyes met he guessed also his
knowledge If he had said to him on the instant what was uppermost he would have
said »Have I passed for of course I know one has to pass here« Little
Bilham would have reassured him have told him that he exaggerated and have
adduced happily enough the argument of little Bilhams own very presence which
in truth he could see was as easy a one as Glorianis own or as Chads He
himself would perhaps then after a while cease to be frightened would get the
point of view for some of the faces types tremendously alien alien to
Woollett that he had already begun to take in Who were they all the
dispersed groups and couples the ladies even more unlike those of Woollett than
the gentlemen this was the enquiry that when his young friend had greeted
him he did find himself making
»Oh theyre every one all sorts and sizes of course I mean within limits
though limits down perhaps rather more than limits up There are always artists
hes beautiful and inimitable to the cher confrère and then gros bonnets of
many kinds ambassadors cabinet ministers bankers generals what do I know
even Jews Above all always some awfully nice women and not too many
sometimes an actress an artist a great performer but only when theyre not
monsters and in particular the right femmes du monde You can fancy his history
on that side I believe its fabulous they never give him up Yet he keeps
them down no one knows how he manages its too beautiful and bland Never too
many and a mighty good thing too just a perfect choice But there are not in
any way many bores it has always been so he has some secret Its
extraordinary And you dont find it out Hes the same to every one He doesnt
ask questions«
»Ah doesnt he« Strether laughed
Bilham met it with all his candour »How then should I be here«
»Oh for what you tell me Youre part of the perfect choice«
Well the young man took in the scene »It seems rather good today«
Strether followed the direction of his eyes »Are they all this time
femmes du monde«
Little Bilham showed his competence »Pretty well«
This was a category our friend had a feeling for a light romantic and
mysterious on the feminine element in which he enjoyed for a little watching
it »Are there any Poles«
His companion considered »I think I make out a Portuguee But Ive seen
Turks«
Strether wondered desiring justice »They seem all the women very
harmonious«
»Oh in closer quarters they come out« And then while Strether was aware of
fearing closer quarters though giving himself again to the harmonies »Well«
little Bilham went on »it is at the worst rather good you know If you like
it you feel it this way that shows youre not in the least out But you
always know things« he handsomely added »immediately«
Strether liked it and felt it only too much so »I say dont lay traps for
me« he rather helplessly murmured
»Well« his companion returned »hes wonderfully kind to us«
»To us Americans you mean«
»Oh no he doesnt know anything about that Thats half the battle here
that you can never hear politics We dont talk them I mean to poor young
wretches of all sorts And yet its always as charming as this its as if by
something in the air our squalor didnt show It puts us all back into the
last century«
»Im afraid« Strether said amused »that it puts me rather forward oh
ever so far«
»Into the next But isnt that only« little Bilham asked »because youre
really of the century before«
»The century before the last Thank youl« Strether laughed »If I ask you
about some of the ladies it cant be then that I may hope as such a specimen of
the rococo to please them«
»On the contrary they adore we all adore here the rococo and where is
there a better setting for it than the whole thing the pavilion and the garden
together There are lots of people with collections« little Bilham smiled as he
glanced round »Youll be secured«
It made Strether for a moment give himself again to contemplation There
were faces he scarce knew what to make of Were they charming or were they only
strange He mightnt talk politics yet he suspected a Pole or two The upshot
was the question at the back of his head from the moment his friend had joined
him »Have Madame de Vionnet and her daughter arrived«
»I havent seen them yet but Miss Gostrey has come Shes in the pavilion
looking at objects One can see shes a collector« little Bilham added without
offence
»Oh yes shes a collector and I knew she was to come Is Madame de Vionnet
a collector« Strether went on
»Rather I believe almost celebrated« The young man met on it a little
his friends eyes »I happen to know from Chad whom I saw last night that
theyve come back but only yesterday He wasnt sure up to the last This
accordingly« little Bilham went on »will be if they are here their first
appearance after their return«
Strether very quickly turned these things over »Chad told you last night
To me on our way here he said nothing about it«
»But did you ask him«
Strether did him the justice »I dare say not«
»Well« said little Bilham »youre not a person to whom ifs easy to tell
things you dont want to know Though it is easy I admit its quite
beautiful« he benevolently added »when you do want to«
Strether looked at him with an indulgence that matched his intelligence »Is
that the deep reasoning on which about these ladies youve been yourself so
silent«
Little Bilham considered the depth of his reasoning »I havent been silent
I spoke of them to you the other day the day we sat together after Chads
teaparty«
Strether came round to it »They then are the virtuous attachment«
»I can only tell you that its what they pass for But isnt that enough
What more than a vain appearance does the wisest of us know I commend you« the
young man declared with a pleasant emphasis »the vain appearance«
Strether looked more widely round and what he saw from face to face
deepened the effect of his young friends words »Is it so good«
»Magnificent«
Strether had a pause »The husbands dead«
»Dear no Alive«
»Oh« said Strether After which as his companion laughed »How then can it
be so good«
»Youll see for yourself One does see«
»Chads in love with the daughter«
»Thats what I mean«
Strether wondered »Then wheres the difficulty«
»Why arent you and I with our grander bolder ideas«
»Oh mine « Strether said rather strangely But then as if to attenuate
»You mean they wont hear of Woollett«
Little Bilham smiled »Isnt that just what you must see about«
It had brought them as she caught the last words into relation with Miss
Barrace whom Strether had already observed as he had never before seen a lady
at a party moving about alone Coming within sound of them she had already
spoken and she took again through her longhandled glass all her amused and
amusing possession »How much poor Mr Strether you seem to have to see about
But you cant say« she gaily declared »that I dont do what I can to help you
Mr Waymarsh is placed Ive left him in the house with Miss Gostrey«
»The way« little Bilham exclaimed »Mr Strether gets the ladies to work
for him Hes just preparing to draw in another to pounce dont you see him
on Madame de Vionnet«
»Madame de Vionnet Oh oh oh« Miss Barrace cried in a wonderful
crescendo There was more in it our friend made out than met the ear Was it
after all a joke that he should be serious about anything He envied Miss
Barrace at any rate her power of not being She seemed with little cries and
protests and quick recognitions movements like the darts of some fine
highfeathered freepecking bird to stand before life as before some full
shopwindow You could fairly hear as she selected and pointed the tap of her
tortoiseshell against the glass »Its certain that we do need seeing about
only Im glad its not I who have to do it One does no doubt begin that way
then suddenly one finds that one has given it up Its too much its too
difficult Youre wonderful you people« she continued to Strether »for not
feeling those things by which I mean impossibilities You never feel them You
face them with a fortitude that makes it a lesson to watch you«
»Ah but« little Bilham put it with discouragement »what do we achieve
after all We see about you and report when we even go so far as reporting
But nothings done«
»Oh you Mr Bilham« she replied as with an impatient rap on the glass
»youre not worth sixpence You come over to convert the savages for I know
you verily did I remember you and the savages simply convert you«
»Not even« the young man woefully confessed »they havent gone through
that form Theyve simply the cannibals eaten me converted me if you like
but converted me into food Im but the bleached bones of a Christian«
»Well then there we are Only« and Miss Barrace appealed again to Strether
»dont let it discourage you Youll break down soon enough but youll
meanwhile have had your moments Il faut en avoir I always like to see you
while you last And Ill tell you who will last«
»Waymarsh« he had already taken her up
She laughed out as at the alarm of it »Hell resist even Miss Gostrey so
grand is it not to understand Hes wonderful«
»He is indeed« Strether conceded »He wouldnt tell me of this affair
only said he had an engagement but with such a gloom you must let me insist
as if it had been an engagement to be hanged Then silently and secretly he
turns up here with you Do you call that lasting«
»Oh I hope its lasting« Miss Barrace said »But he only at the best
bears with me He doesnt understand not one little scrap Hes delightful
Hes wonderful« she repeated
»Michelangelesque« little Bilham completed her meaning »He is a success
Moses on the ceiling brought down to the floor overwhelming colossal but
somehow portable«
»Certainly if you mean by portable« she returned »looking so well in
ones carriage Hes too funny beside me in his corner he looks like somebody
somebody foreign and famous en exil so that people wonder its very amusing
whom Im taking about I show him Paris show him everything and he never
turns a hair Hes like the Indian chief one reads about who when he comes up
to Washington to see the Great Father stands wrapt in his blanket and gives no
sign I might be the Great Father from the way he takes everything« She was
delighted at this hit of her identity with that personage it fitted so her
character she declared it was the title she meant henceforth to adopt »And the
way he sits too in the corner of my room only looking at my visitors very
hard and as if he wanted to start something They wonder what he does want to
start But hes wonderful« Miss Barrace once more insisted »He has never
started anything yet«
It presented him none the less in truth to her actual friends who looked
at each other in intelligence with frank amusement on Bilhams part and a shade
of sadness on Strethers Strethers sadness sprang for the image had its
grandeur from his thinking how little he himself was wrapt in his blanket how
little in marble halls all too oblivious of the Great Father he resembled a
really majestic aboriginal But he had also another reflexion »Youve all of
you here so much visual sense that youve somehow all run to it There are
moments when it strikes one that you havent any other«
»Any moral« little Bilham explained watching serenely across the garden
the several femmes du monde »But Miss Barrace has a moral distinction« he
kindly continued speaking as if for Strethers benefit not less than for her
own
»Have you« Strether scarce knowing what he was about asked of her almost
eagerly
»Oh not a distinction« she was mightily amused at his tone »Mr Bilhams
too good But I think I may say a sufficiency Yes a sufficiency Have you
supposed strange things of me« and she fixed him again through all her
tortoiseshell with the droll interest of it »You are all indeed wonderful I
should awfully disappoint you I do take my stand on my sufficiency But I know
I confess« she went on »strange people I dont know how it happens I dont
do it on purpose it seems to be my doom as if I were always one of their
habits its wonderful I dare say moreover« she pursued with an interested
gravity »that I do that we all do here run too much to mere eye But how can
it be helped Were all looking at each other and in the light of Paris one
sees what things resemble Thats what the light of Paris seems always to show
Its the fault of the light of Paris dear old light«
»Dear old Paris« little Bilham echoed
»Everything every one shows« Miss Barrace went on
»But for what they really are« Strether asked
»Oh I like your Boston reallys But sometimes yes«
»Dear old Paris then« Strether resignedly sighed while for a moment they
looked at each other Then he broke out »Does Madame de Vionnet do that I mean
really show for what she is«
Her answer was prompt »Shes charming Shes perfect«
»Then why did you a minute ago say Oh oh oh at her name«
She easily remembered »Why just because Shes wonderful«
»Ah she too« Strether had almost a groan
But Miss Barrace had meanwhile perceived relief »Why not put your question
straight to the person who can answer it best«
»No« said little Bilham »dont put any question wait rather it will be
much more fun to judge for yourself He has come to take you to her«
II
On which Strether saw that Chad was again at hand and he afterwards scarce
knew absurd as it may seem what had then quickly occurred The moment
concerned him he felt more deeply than he could have explained and he had a
subsequent passage of speculation as to whether on walking off with Chad he
hadnt looked either pale or red The only thing he was clear about was that
luckily nothing indiscreet had in fact been said and that Chad himself was
more than ever in Miss Barraces great sense wonderful It was one of the
connexions though really why it should be after all was none so apparent
in which the whole change in him came out as most striking Strether recalled as
they approached the house that he had impressed him that first night as knowing
how to enter a box Well he impressed him scarce less now as knowing how to
make a presentation It did something for Strethers own quality marked it as
estimated so that our poor friend conscious and passive really seemed to feel
himself quite handed over and delivered absolutely as he would have said made
a present of given away As they reached the house a young woman about to come
forth appeared unaccompanied on the steps at the exchange with whom of a
word on Chads part Strether immediately perceived that obligingly kindly she
was there to meet them Chad had left her in the house but she had afterwards
come halfway and then the next moment had joined them in the garden Her air of
youth for Strether was at first almost disconcerting while his second
impression was not less sharply a degree of relief at there not having just
been with the others any freedom used about her It was upon him at a touch
that she was no subject for that and meanwhile on Chads introducing him she
had spoken to him very simply and gently in an English clearly of the easiest
to her yet unlike any other he had ever heard It wasnt as if she tried
nothing he could see after they had been a few minutes together was as if she
tried but her speech charming correct and odd was like a precaution against
her passing for a Pole There were precautions he seemed indeed to see only
when there were really dangers
Later on he was to feel many more of them but by that time he was to feel
other things besides She was dressed in black but in black that struck him as
light and transparent she was exceedingly fair and though she was as markedly
slim her face had a roundness with eyes far apart and a little strange Her
smile was natural and dim her hat not extravagant he had only perhaps a sense
of the clink beneath her fine black sleeves of more gold bracelets and bangles
than he had ever seen a lady wear Chad was excellently free and light about
their encounter it was one of the occasions on which Strether most wished he
himself might have arrived at such ease and such humour »Here you are then
face to face at last youre made for each other vous allez voir and I bless
your union« It was indeed after he had gone off as if he had been partly
serious too This latter motion had been determined by an enquiry from him about
Jeanne to which her mother had replied that she was probably still in the house
with Miss Gostrey to whom she had lately committed her »Ah but you know« the
young man had rejoined »he must see her« with which while Strether pricked up
his ears he had started as if to bring her leaving the other objects of his
interest together Strether wondered to find Miss Gostrey already involved
feeling that he missed a link but feeling also with small delay how much he
should like to talk with her of Madame de Vionnet on this basis of evidence
The evidence as yet in truth was meagre which for that matter was perhaps
a little why his expectation had had a drop There was somehow not quite a
wealth in her and a wealth was all that in his simplicity he had definitely
prefigured Still it was too much to be sure already that there was but a
poverty They moved away from the house and with eyes on a bench at some
distance he proposed that they should sit down »Ive heard a great deal about
you« she said as they went but he had an answer to it that made her stop
short »Well about you Madame de Vionnet Ive heard Im bound to say almost
nothing« those struck him as the only words he himself could utter with any
lucidity conscious as he was and as with more reason of the determination to
be in respect to the rest of his business perfectly plain and go perfectly
straight It hadnt at any rate been in the least his idea to spy on Chads
proper freedom It was possibly however at this very instant and under the
impression of Madame de Vionnets pause that going straight began to announce
itself as a matter for care She had only after all to smile at him ever so
gently in order to make him ask himself if he werent already going crooked It
might be going crooked to find it of a sudden just only clear that she intended
very definitely to be what he would have called nice to him This was what
passed between them while for another instant they stood still he couldnt at
least remember afterwards what else it might have been The thing indeed really
unmistakeable was its rolling over him as a wave that he had been in conditions
incalculable and unimaginable a subject of discussion He had been on some
ground that concerned her answered for which gave her an advantage he should
never be able to match
»Hasnt Miss Gostrey« she asked »said a good word for me«
What had struck him first was the way he was bracketed with that lady and
he wondered what account Chad would have given of their acquaintance Something
not as yet traceable at all events had obviously happened »I didnt even know
of her knowing you«
»Well now shell tell you all Im so glad youre in relation with her«
This was one of the things the all Miss Gostrey would now tell him that
with every deference to present preoccupation was uppermost for Strether after
they had taken their seat One of the others was at the end of five minutes
that she oh incontestably yes differed less differed that is scarcely at
all well superficially speaking from Mrs Newsome or even from Mrs Pocock
She was ever so much younger than the one and not so young as the other but
what was there in her if anything that would have made it impossible he should
meet her at Woollett And wherein was her talk during their moments on the bench
together not the same as would have been found adequate for a Woollett
gardenparty unless perhaps truly in not being quite so bright She observed
to him that Mr Newsome had to her knowledge taken extraordinary pleasure in
his visit but there was no good lady at Woollett who wouldnt have been at
least up to that Was there in Chad by chance after all deep down a
principle of aboriginal loyalty that had made him for sentimental ends attach
himself to elements happily encountered that would remind him most of the old
air and the old soil Why accordingly be in a flutter Strether could even put
it that way about this unfamiliar phenomenon of the femme du monde On these
terms Mrs Newsome herself was as much of one Little Bilham verily had
testified that they came out the ladies of the type in close quarters but it
was just in these quarters now comparatively close that he felt Madame de
Vionnets common humanity She did come out and certainly to his relief but
she came out as the usual thing There might be motives behind but so could
there often be even at Woollett The only thing was that if she showed him she
wished to like him as the motives behind might conceivably prompt it would
possibly have been more thrilling for him that she should have shown as more
vividly alien Ah she was neither Turk nor Pole which would be indeed flat
once more for Mrs Newsome and Mrs Pocock A lady and two gentlemen had
meanwhile however approached their bench and this accident stayed for the
time further developments
They presently addressed his companion the brilliant strangers she rose to
speak to them and Strether noted how the escorted lady though mature and by no
means beautiful had more of the bold high look the range of expensive
reference that he had as might have been said made his plans for Madame de
Vionnet greeted her as Duchesse and was greeted in turn while talk started in
French as Ma toutebelle little facts that had their due their vivid interest
for Strether Madame de Vionnet didnt none the less introduce him a note he
was conscious of as false to the Woollett scale and the Woollett humanity
though it didnt prevent the Duchess who struck him as confident and free very
much what he had obscurely supposed duchesses from looking at him as straight
and as hard for it was hard as if she would have liked all the same to
know him »Oh yes my dear its all right its me and who are you with your
interesting wrinkles and your most effective is it the handsomest is it the
ugliest of noses« some such loose handful of bright flowers she seemed
fragrantly enough to fling at him Strether almost wondered at such a pace
was he going if some divination of the influence of either party were what
determined Madame de Vionnets abstention One of the gentlemen in any case
succeeded in placing himself in close relation with our friends companion a
gentleman rather stout and importantly short in a hat with a wonderful wide
curl to its brim and a frock coat buttoned with an effect of superlative
decision His French had quickly turned to equal English and it occurred to
Strether that he might well be one of the ambassadors His design was evidently
to assert a claim to Madame de Vionnets undivided countenance and he made it
good in the course of a minute led her away with a trick of three words a
trick played with a social art of which Strether looking after them as the
four whose backs were now all turned moved off felt himself no master
He sank again upon his bench and while his eyes followed the party
reflected as he had done before on Chads strange communities He sat there
alone for five minutes with plenty to think of above all with his sense of
having suddenly been dropped by a charming woman overlaid now by other
impressions and in fact quite cleared and indifferent He hadnt yet had so
quiet a surrender he didnt in the least care if nobody spoke to him more He
might have been by his attitude in for something of a march so broad that the
want of ceremony with which he had just been used could fall into its place as
but a minor incident of the procession Besides there would be incidents
enough as he felt when this term of contemplation was closed by the
reappearance of little Bilham who stood before him a moment with a suggestive
Well in which he saw himself reflected as disorganised as possibly floored He
replied with a Well intended to show that he wasnt floored in the least No
indeed he gave it out as the young man sat down beside him that if at the
worst he had been overturned at all he had been overturned into the upper air
the sublimer element with which he had an affinity and in which he might be
trusted a while to float It wasnt a descent to earth to say after an instant
and in sustained response to the reference »Youre quite sure her husbands
living«
»Oh dear yes«
»Ah then «
»Ah then what«
Strether had after all to think »Well Im sorry for them« But it didnt
for the moment matter more than that He assured his young friend he was quite
content They wouldnt stir were all right as they were He didnt want to be
introduced had been introduced already about as far as he could go He had seen
moreover an immensity liked Gloriani who as Miss Barrace kept saying was
wonderful had made out he was sure the halfdozen other men who were
distinguished the artists the critics and oh the great dramatist him it was
easy to spot but wanted no thanks really to talk with none of them
having nothing at all to say and finding it would do beautifully as it was do
beautifully because what it was well was just simply too late And when after
this little Bilham submissive and responsive but with an eye to the
consolation nearest easily threw off some »Better late than never« all he got
in return for it was a sharp »Better early than latel« This note indeed the next
thing overflowed for Strether into a quiet stream of demonstration that as soon
as he had let himself go he felt as the real relief It had consciously gathered
to a head but the reservoir had filled sooner than he knew and his companions
touch was to make the waters spread There were some things that had to come in
time if they were to come at all If they didnt come in time they were lost for
ever It was the general sense of them that had overwhelmed him with its long
slow rush
»Its not too late for you on any side and you dont strike me as in
danger of missing the train besides which people can be in general pretty well
trusted of course with the clock of their freedom ticking as loud as it seems
to do here to keep an eye on the fleeting hour All the same dont forget that
youre young blessedly young be glad of it on the contrary and live up to it
Live all you can its a mistake not to It doesnt so much matter what you do
in particular so long as you have your life If you havent had that what have
you had This place and these impressions mild as you may find them to wind a
man up so all my impressions of Chad and of people Ive seen at his place
well have had their abundant message for me have just dropped that into my
mind I see it now I havent done so enough before and now Im old too old
at any rate for what I see Oh I do see at least and more than youd believe
or I can express Its too late And its as if the train had fairly waited at
the station for me without my having had the gumption to know it was there Now
I hear its faint receding whistle miles and miles down the line What one loses
one loses make no mistake about that The affair I mean the affair of life
couldnt no doubt have been different for me for its at the best a tin
mould either fluted and embossed with ornamental excrescences or else smooth
and dreadfully plain into which a helpless jelly ones consciousness is
poured so that one takes the form as the great cook says and is more or less
compactly held by it one lives in fine as one can Still one has the illusion
of freedom therefore dont be like me without the memory of that illusion I
was either at the right time too stupid or too intelligent to have it I dont
quite know which Of course at present Im a case of reaction against the
mistake and the voice of reaction should no doubt always be taken with an
allowance But that doesnt affect the point that the right time is now yours
The right time is any time that one is still so lucky as to have Youve plenty
thats the great thing youre as I say damn you so happily and hatefully
young Dont at any rate miss things out of stupidity Of course I dont take
you for a fool or I shouldnt be addressing you thus awfully Do what you like
so long as you dont make my mistake For it was a mistake Live« Slowly
and sociably with full pauses and straight dashes Strether had so delivered
himself holding little Bilham from step to step deeply and gravely attentive
The end of all was that the young man had turned quite solemn and that this was
a contradiction of the innocent gaiety the speaker had wished to promote He
watched for a moment the consequence of his words and then laying a hand on
his listeners knee and as if to end with the proper joke »And now for the eye
I shall keep on you«
»Oh but I dont know that I want to be at your age too different from
you«
»Ah prepare while youre about it« said Strether »to be more amusing«
Little Bilham continued to think but at last had a smile »Well you are
amusing to me«
»Impayable as you say no doubt But what am I to myself« Strether had
risen with this giving his attention now to an encounter that in the middle of
the garden was in the act of taking place between their host and the lady at
whose side Madame de Vionnet had quitted him This lady who appeared within a
few minutes to have left her friends awaited Glorianis eager approach with
words on her lips that Strether couldnt catch but of which her interesting
witty face seemed to give him the echo He was sure she was prompt and fine but
also that she had met her match and he liked in the light of what he was
quite sure was the Duchesss latent insolence the good humour with which the
great artist asserted equal resources Were they this pair of the »great
world« and was he himself for the moment and thus related to them by his
observation in it Then there was something in the great world covertly
tigerish which came to him across the lawn and in the charming air as a waft
from the jungle Yet it made him admire most of the two made him envy the
glossy male tiger magnificently marked These absurdities of the stirred sense
fruits of suggestion ripening on the instant were all reflected in his next
words to little Bilham »I know if we talk of that whom I should enjoy being
like«
Little Bilham followed his eyes but then as with a shade of knowing
surprise »Gloriani«
Our friend had in fact already hesitated though not on the hint of his
companions doubt in which there were depths of critical reserve He had just
made out in the now full picture something and somebody else another
impression had been superimposed A young girl in a white dress and a softly
plumed white hat had suddenly come into view and what was presently clear was
that her course was toward them What was clearer still was that the handsome
young man at her side was Chad Newsome and what was clearest of all was that
she was therefore Mademoiselle de Vionnet that she was unmistakeably pretty
bright gentle shy happy wonderful and that Chad now with a consummate
calculation of effect was about to present her to his old friends vision What
was clearest of all indeed was something much more than this something at the
single stroke of which and wasnt it simply juxtaposition all vagueness
vanished It was the click of a spring he saw the truth He had by this time
also met Chads look there was more of it in that and the truth accordingly
so far as Bilhams enquiry was concerned had thrust in the answer »Oh Chad«
it was that rare youth he should have enjoyed being like The virtuous
attachment would be all there before him the virtuous attachment would be in
the very act of appeal for his blessing Jeanne de Vionnet this charming
creature would be exquisitely intensely now the object of it Chad brought
her straight up to him and Chad was oh yes at this moment for the glory of
Woollett or whatever better still even than Gloriani He had plucked this
blossom he had kept it overnight in water and at last as he held it up to
wonder he did enjoy his effect That was why Strether had felt at first the
breath of calculation and why moreover as he now knew his look at the girl
would be for the young man a sign of the latters success What young man had
ever paraded about that way without a reason a maiden in her flower And there
was nothing in his reason at present obscure Her type sufficiently told of it
they wouldnt they couldnt want her to go to Woollett Poor Woollett and
what it might miss though brave Chad indeed too and what it might gain
Brave Chad however had just excellently spoken »This is a good little friend of
mine who knows all about you and has moreover a message for you And this my
dear« he had turned to the child herself »is the best man in the world who
has it in his power to do a great deal for us and whom I want you to like and
revere as nearly as possible as much as I do«
She stood there quite pink a little frightened prettier and prettier and
not a bit like her mother There was in this last particular no resemblance but
that of youth to youth and here was in fact suddenly Strethers sharpest
impression It went wondering dazed embarrassed back to the woman he had just
been talking with it was a revelation in the light of which he already saw she
would become more interesting So slim and fresh and fair she had yet put forth
this perfection so that for really believing it of her for seeing her to any
such developed degree as a mother comparison would be urgent Well what was it
now but fairly thrust upon him »Mamma wishes me to tell you before we go« the
girl said »that she hopes very much youll come to see us very soon She has
something important to say to you«
»She quite reproaches herself« Chad helpfully explained »you were
interesting her so much when she accidentally suffered you to be interrupted«
»Ah dont mention it« Strether murmured looking kindly from one to the
other and wondering at many things
»And Im to ask you for myself« Jeanne continued with her hands clasped
together as if in some small learnt prayer »Im to ask you for myself if you
wont positively come«
»Leave it to me dear Ill take care of it« Chad genially declared in
answer to this while Strether himself almost held his breath What was in the
girl was indeed too soft too unknown for direct dealing so that one could only
gaze at it as at a picture quite staying ones own hand But with Chad he was
now on ground Chad he could meet so pleasant a confidence in that and in
everything did the young man freely exhale There was the whole of a story in
his tone to his companion and he spoke indeed as if already of the family It
made Strether guess the more quickly what it might be about which Madame de
Vionnet was so urgent Having seen him then she had found him easy she wished
to have it out with him that some way for the young people must be discovered
some way that would not impose as a condition the transplantation of her
daughter He already saw himself discussing with this lady the attractions of
Woollett as a residence for Chads companion Was that youth going now to trust
her with the affair so that it would be after all with one of his
»ladyfriends« that his mothers missionary should be condemned to deal It was
quite as if for an instant the two men looked at each other on this question
But there was no mistaking at last Chads pride in the display of such a
connexion This was what had made him so carry himself while three minutes
before he was bringing it into view what had caused his friend first catching
sight of him to be so struck with his air It was in a word just when he thus
finally felt Chad putting things straight off on him that he envied him as he
had mentioned to little Bilham most The whole exhibition however was but a
matter of three or four minutes and the author of it had soon explained that
as Madame de Vionnet was immediately going »on« this could be for Jeanne but a
snatch They would all meet again soon and Strether was meanwhile to stay and
amuse himself »Ill pick you up again in plenty of time« He took the girl off
as he had brought her and Strether with the faint sweet foreignness of her »Au
revoir monsieur« in his ears as a note almost unprecedented watched them
recede side by side and felt how once more her companions relation to her got
an accent from it They disappeared among the others and apparently into the
house whereupon our friend turned round to give out to little Bilham the
conviction of which he was full But there was no little Bilham any more little
Bilham had within the few moments for reasons of his own proceeded further a
circumstance by which in its order Strether was also sensibly affected
III
Chad was not in fact on this occasion to keep his promise of coming back but
Miss Gostrey had soon presented herself with an explanation of his failure
There had been reasons at the last for his going off with ces dames and he had
asked her with much instance to come out and take charge of their friend She
did so Strether felt as she took her place beside him in a manner that left
nothing to desire He had dropped back on his bench alone again for a time and
the more conscious for little Bilhams defection of his unexpressed thought in
respect to which however this next converser was a still more capacious vessel
»Its the child« he had exclaimed to her almost as soon as she appeared and
though her direct response was for some time delayed he could feel in her
meanwhile the working of this truth It might have been simply as she waited
that they were now in presence altogether of truth spreading like a flood and
not for the moment to be offered her in the mere cupful inasmuch as who should
ces dames prove to be but persons about whom once thus face to face with them
she found she might from the first have told him almost everything This would
have freely come had he taken the simple precaution of giving her their name
There could be no better example and she appeared to note it with high
amusement than the way making things out already so much for himself he was
at last throwing precautions to the winds They were neither more nor less she
and the childs mother than old schoolfriends friends who had scarcely met
for years but whom this unlookedfor chance had brought together with a rush It
was a relief Miss Gostrey hinted to feel herself no longer groping she was
unaccustomed to grope and as a general thing he might well have seen made
straight enough for her clue With the one she had now picked up in her hands
there need be at least no waste of wonder »Shes coming to see me thats for
you« Strethers counsellor continued »but I dont require it to know where I
am«
The waste of wonder might be proscribed but Strether characteristically
was even by this time in the immensity of space »By which you mean that you
know where she is«
She just hesitated »I mean that if she comes to see me I shall now that
Ive pulled myself round a bit after the shock not be at home«
Strether hung poised »You call it your recognition a shock«
She gave one of her rare flickers of impatience »It was a surprise an
emotion Dont be so literal I wash my hands of her«
Poor Strethers face lengthened »Shes impossible «
»Shes even more charming than I remembered her«
»Then whats the matter«
She had to think how to put it »Well Im impossible Its impossible
Everythings impossible«
He looked at her an instant »I see where youre coming out Everythings
possible« Their eyes had on it in fact an exchange of some duration after
which he pursued »Isnt it that beautiful child« Then as she still said
nothing »Why dont you mean to receive her«
Her answer in an instant rang clear »Because I wish to keep out of the
business«
It provoked in him a weak wail »Youre going to abandon me now«
»No Im only going to abandon her Shell want me to help her with you And
I wont«
»Youll only help me with her Well then « Most of the persons previously
gathered had in the interest of tea passed into the house and they had the
gardens mainly to themselves The shadows were long the last call of the birds
who had made a home of their own in the noble interspaced quarter sounded from
the high trees in the other gardens as well those of the old convent and of the
old hôtels it was as if our friends had waited for the full charm to come out
Strethers impressions were still present it was as if something had happened
that nailed them made them more intense but he was to ask himself soon
afterwards that evening what really had happened conscious as he could after
all remain that for a gentleman taken and taken the first time into the »great
world« the world of ambassadors and duchesses the items made a meagre total
It was nothing new to him however as we know that a man might have at all
events such a man as he an amount of experience out of any proportion to his
adventures so that though it was doubtless no great adventure to sit on there
with Miss Gostrey and hear about Madame de Vionnet the hour the picture the
immediate the recent the possible as well as the communication itself not a
note of which failed to reverberate only gave the moments more of the taste of
history
It was history to begin with that Jeannes mother had been
threeandtwenty years before at Geneva schoolmate and good girlfriend to
Maria Gostrey who had moreover enjoyed since then though interruptedly and
above all with a long recent drop other glimpses of her Twentythree years put
them both on no doubt and Madame de Vionnet though she had married straight
after school couldnt be today an hour less than thirtyeight This made her
ten years older than Chad though ten years also if Strether liked older
than she looked the least at any rate that a prospective motherinlaw could
be expected to do with She would be of all mothersinlaw the most charming
unless indeed through some perversity as yet insupposeable she should utterly
belie herself in that relation There was none surely in which as Maria
remembered her she mustnt be charming and this frankly in spite of the stigma
of failure in the tie where failure always most showed It was no test there
when indeed was it a test there for Monsieur de Vionnet had been a brute She
had lived for years apart from him which was of course always a horrid
position but Miss Gostreys impression of the matter had been that she could
scarce have made a better thing of it had she done it on purpose to show she was
amiable She was so amiable that nobody had had a word to say which was luckily
not the case for her husband He was so impossible that she had the advantage of
all her merits
It was still history for Strether that the Comte de Vionnet it being also
history that the lady in question was a Countess should now under Miss
Gostreys sharp touch rise before him as a high distinguished polished
impertinent reprobate the product of a mysterious order it was history
further that the charming girl so freely sketched by his companion should have
been married out of hand by a mother another figure of striking outline full
of dark personal motive it was perhaps history most of all that this company
was as a matter of course governed by such considerations as put divorce out
of the question »Ces genslà dont divorce you know any more than they
emigrate or abjure they think it impious and vulgar« a fact in the light of
which they seemed but the more richly special It was all special it was all
for Strethers imagination more or less rich The girl at the Genevese school
an isolated interesting attaching creature then both sensitive and violent
audacious but always forgiven was the daughter of a French father and an
English mother who early left a widow had married again tried afresh with a
foreigner in her career with whom she had apparently given her child no example
of comfort All these people the people of the English mothers side had
been of condition more or less eminent yet with oddities and disparities that
had often since made Maria thinking them over wonder what they really quite
rhymed to It was in any case her belief that the mother interested and prone
to adventure had been without conscience had only thought of ridding herself
most quickly of a possible an actual encumbrance The father by her
impression a Frenchman with a name one knew had been a different matter
leaving his child she clearly recalled a memory all fondness as well as an
assured little fortune which was unluckily to make her more or less of a prey
later on She had been in particular at school dazzlingly though quite
booklessly clever as polyglot as a little Jewess which she wasnt oh no
and chattering French English German Italian anything one would in a way
that made a clean sweep if not of prizes and parchments at least of every
part whether memorised or improvised in the curtained costumed school
repertory and in especial of all mysteries of race and vagueness of reference
all swagger about home among their variegated mates
It would doubtless be difficult today as between French and English to
name her and place her she would certainly show on knowledge Miss Gostrey
felt as one of those convenient types who dont keep you explaining minds
with doors as numerous as the manytongued cluster of confessionals at Saint
Peters You might confess to her with confidence in Roumelian and even
Roumelian sins Therefore But Strethers narrator covered her implication
with a laugh a laugh by which his betrayal of a sense of the lurid in the
picture was also perhaps sufficiently protected He had a moment of wondering
while his friend went on what sins might be especially Roumelian She went on
at all events to the mention of her having met the young thing again by some
Swiss lake in her first married state which had appeared for the few
intermediate years not at least violently disturbed She had been lovely at that
moment delightful to her full of responsive emotion of amused recognitions
and amusing reminders and then once more much later after a long interval
equally but differently charming touching and rather mystifying for the five
minutes of an encounter at a railwaystation en province during which it had
come out that her life was all changed Miss Gostrey had understood enough to
see essentially what had happened and yet had beautifully dreamed that she
was herself faultless There were doubtless depths in her but she was all
right Strether would see if she wasnt She was another person however that
had been promptly marked from the small child of nature at the Geneva school
a little person quite made over as foreign women were compared with American
by marriage Her situation too had evidently cleared itself up there would have
been all that was possible a judicial separation She had settled in Paris
brought up her daughter steered her boat It was no very pleasant boat
especially there to be in but Marie de Vionnet would have headed straight
She would have friends certainly and very good ones There she was at all
events and it was very interesting Her knowing Mr Chad didnt in the least
prove she hadnt friends what it proved was what good ones he had »I saw
that« said Miss Gostrey »that night at the Français it came out for me in
three minutes I saw her or somebody like her And so« she immediately added
»did you«
»Oh no not anybody like her« Strether laughed »But you mean« he as
promptly went on »that she has had such an influence on him«
Miss Gostrey was on her feet it was time for them to go »She has brought
him up for her daughter«
Their eyes as so often in candid conference through their settled
glasses met over it long after which Strethers again took in the whole place
They were quite alone there now »Mustnt she rather in the time then have
rushed it«
»Ah she wont of course have lost an hour But thats just the good mother
the good French one You must remember that of her that as a mother shes
French and that for them theres a special providence It precisely however
that she maynt have been able to begin as far back as shed have liked makes
her grateful for aid«
Strether took this in as they slowly moved to the house on their way out
»She counts on me then to put the thing through«
»Yes she counts on you Oh and first of all of course« Miss Gostrey
added »on her well convincing you«
»Ah« her friend returned »she caught Chad young«
»Yes but there are women who are for all your times of life Theyre the
most wonderful sort«
She had laughed the words out but they brought her companion the next
thing to a stand »Is what you mean that shell try to make a fool of me«
»Well Im wondering what she will with an opportunity make«
»What do you call« Strether asked »an opportunity My going to see her«
»Ah you must go to see her« Miss Gostrey was a trifle evasive »You cant
not do that Youd have gone to see the other woman I mean if there had been
one a different sort Its what you came out for«
It might be but Strether distinguished »I didnt come out to see this
sort«
She had a wonderful look at him now »Are you disappointed she isnt worse«
He for a moment entertained the question then found for it the frankest of
answers »Yes If she were worse shed be better for our purpose It would be
simpler«
»Perhaps« she admitted »But wont this be pleasanter«
»Ah you know« he promptly replied »I didnt come out wasnt that just
what you originally reproached me with for the pleasant«
»Precisely Therefore I say again what I said at first You must take things
as they come Besides« Miss Gostrey added »Im not afraid for myself«
»For yourself «
»Of your seeing her I trust her Theres nothing shell say about me In
fact theres nothing she can«
Strether wondered little as he had thought of this Then he broke out »Oh
you women«
There was something in it at which she flushed »Yes there we are Were
abysses« At last she smiled »But I risk her«
He gave himself a shake »Well then so do I« But he added as they passed
into the house that he would see Chad the first thing in the morning
This was the next day the more easily effected that the young man as it
happened even before he was down turned up at his hotel Strether took his
coffee by habit in the public room but on his descending for this purpose
Chad instantly proposed an adjournment to what he called greater privacy He had
himself as yet had nothing they would sit down somewhere together and when
after a few steps and a turn into the Boulevard they had for their greater
privacy sat down among twenty others our friend saw in his companions move a
fear of the advent of Waymarsh It was the first time Chad had to that extent
given this personage away and Strether found himself wondering of what it was
symptomatic He made out in a moment that the youth was in earnest as he hadnt
yet seen him which in its turn threw a ray perhaps a trifle startling on what
they had each up to that time been treating as earnestness It was sufficiently
flattering however that the real thing if this was at last the real thing
should have been determined as appeared precisely by an accretion of
Strethers importance For this was what it quickly enough came to that Chad
rising with the lark had rushed down to let him know while his morning
consciousness was yet young that he had literally made the afternoon before a
tremendous impression Madame de Vionnet wouldnt couldnt rest till she should
have some assurance from him that he would consent again to see her The
announcement was made across their marbletopped table while the foam of the
hot milk was in their cups and its plash still in the air with the smile of
Chads easiest urbanity and this expression of his face caused our friends
doubts to gather on the spot into a challenge of the lips »See here« that was
all he only for the moment said again »See here« Chad met it with all his air
of straight intelligence while Strether remembered again that fancy of the
first impression of him the happy young Pagan handsome and hard but oddly
indulgent whose mysterious measure he had under the streetlamp tried mentally
to take The young Pagan while a long look passed between them sufficiently
understood Strether scarce needed at last to say the rest »I want to know
where I am« But he said it adding before any answer something more »Are you
engaged to be married is that your secret to the young lady«
Chad shook his head with the slow amenity that was one of his ways of
conveying that there was time for everything »I have no secret though I may
have secrets I havent at any rate that one Were not engaged No«
»Then wheres the hitch«
»Do you mean why I havent already started with you« Chad beginning his
coffee and buttering his roll was quite ready to explain »Nothing would have
induced me nothing will still induce me not to try to keep you here as long
as you can be made to stay Its too visibly good for you« Strether had himself
plenty to say about this but it was amusing also to measure the march of Chads
tone He had never been more a man of the world and it was always in his
company present to our friend that one was seeing how in successive connexions a
man of the world acquitted himself Chad kept it up beautifully »My idea
voyons is simply that you should let Madame de Vionnet know you simply that
you should consent to know her I dont in the least mind telling you that
clever and charming as she is shes ever so much in my confidence All I ask of
you is to let her talk to you Youve asked me about what you call my hitch and
so far as it goes shell explain it to you Shes herself my hitch hang it if
you must really have it all out But in a sense« he hastened in the most
wonderful manner to add »that youll quite make out for yourself Shes too
good a friend confound her Too good I mean for me to leave without without
« It was his first hesitation
»Without what«
»Well without my arranging somehow or other the damnable terms of my
sacrifice«
»It will be a sacrifice then«
»It will be the greatest loss I ever suffered I owe her so much«
It was beautiful the way Chad said these things and his plea was now
confessedly oh quite flagrantly and publicly interesting The moment really
took on for Strether an intensity Chad owed Madame de Vionnet so much What did
that do then but clear up the whole mystery He was indebted for alterations
and she was thereby in a position to have sent in her bill for expenses incurred
in reconstruction What was this at bottom but what had been to be arrived at
Strether sat there arriving at it while he munched toast and stirred his second
cup To do this with the aid of Chads pleasant earnest face was also to do more
besides No never before had he been so ready to take him as he was What was
it that had suddenly so cleared up It was just everybodys character that is
everybodys but in a measure his own Strether felt his character receive
for the instant a smutch from all the wrong things he had suspected or believed
The person to whom Chad owed it that he could positively turn out such a comfort
to other persons such a person was sufficiently raised above any breath by the
nature of her work and the young mans steady light All of which was vivid
enough to come and go quickly though indeed in the midst of it Strether could
utter a question »Have I your word of honour that if I surrender myself to
Madame de Vionnet youll surrender yourself to me«
Chad laid his hand firmly on his friends »My dear man you have it«
There was finally something in his felicity almost embarrassing and
oppressive Strether had begun to fidget under it for the open air and the
erect posture He had signed to the waiter that he wished to pay and this
transaction took some moments during which he thoroughly felt while he put
down money and pretended it was quite hollow to estimate change that Chads
higher spirit his youth his practice his paganism his felicity his
assurance his impudence whatever it might be had consciously scored a
success Well that was all right so far as it went his sense of the thing in
question covered our friend for a minute like a veil through which as if he
had been muffled he heard his interlocutor ask him if he mightnt take him
over about five Over was over the river and over the river was where Madame de
Vionnet lived and five was that very afternoon They got at last out of the
place got out before he answered He lighted in the street a cigarette
which again gave him more time But it was already sharp for him that there was
no use in time »What does she propose to do to me« he had presently demanded
Chad had no delays »Are you afraid of her«
»Oh immensely Dont you see it«
»Well« said Chad »she wont do anything worse to you than make you like
her«
»Its just of that Im afraid«
»Then its not fair to me«
Strether cast about »Its fair to your mother«
»Oh« said Chad »are you afraid of her«
»Scarcely less Or perhaps even more But is this lady against your
interests at home« Strether went on
»Not directly no doubt but shes greatly in favour of them here«
»And what here does she consider them to be«
»Well good relations«
»With herself«
»With herself«
»And what is it that makes them so good«
»What Well thats exactly what youll make out if youll only go as Im
supplicating you to see her«
Strether stared at him with a little of the wanness no doubt that the
vision of more to make out could scarce help producing »I mean how good are
they«
»Oh awfully good«
Again Strether had faltered but it was brief It was all very well but
there was nothing now he wouldnt risk »Excuse me but I must really as I
began by telling you know where I am Is she bad«
»Bad« Chad echoed it but without a shock »Is that whats implied «
»When relations are good« Strether felt a little silly and was even
conscious of a foolish laugh at having it imposed on him to have appeared to
speak so What indeed was he talking about His stare had relaxed he looked now
all round him But something in him brought him back though he still didnt
know quite how to turn it The two or three ways he thought of and one of them
in particular were even with scruples dismissed too ugly He none the less at
last found something »Is her life without reproach«
It struck him directly he had found it as pompous and priggish so much so
that he was thankful to Chad for taking it only in the right spirit The young
man spoke so immensely to the point that the effect was practically of positive
blandness »Absolutely without reproach A beautiful life Allez donc voir«
These last words were in the liberality of their confidence so imperative
that Strether went through no form of assent but before they separated it had
been confirmed that he should be picked up at a quarter to five
Book Sixth
I
It was quite by halfpast five after the two men had been together in Madame
de Vionnets drawingroom not more than a dozen minutes that Chad with a look
at his watch and then another at their hostess said genially gaily »Ive an
engagement and I know you wont complain if I leave him with you Hell
interest you immensely and as for her« he declared to Strether »I assure you
if youre at all nervous shes perfectly safe«
He had left them to be embarrassed or not by this guarantee as they could
best manage and embarrassment was a thing that Strether wasnt at first sure
Madame de Vionnet escaped He escaped it himself to his surprise but he had
grown used by this time to thinking of himself as brazen She occupied his
hostess in the Rue de Bellechasse the first floor of an old house to which our
visitors had had access from an old clean court The court was large and open
full of revelations for our friend of the habit of privacy the peace of
intervals the dignity of distances and approaches the house to his restless
sense was in the high homely style of an elder day and the ancient Paris that
he was always looking for sometimes intensely felt sometimes more acutely
missed was in the immemorial polish of the wide waxed staircase and in the
fine boiseries the medallions mouldings mirrors great clear spaces of the
greyishwhite salon into which he had been shown He seemed at the very outset
to see her in the midst of possessions not vulgarly numerous but hereditary
cherished charming While his eyes turned after a little from those of his
hostess and Chad freely talked not in the least about him but about other
people people he didnt know and quite as if he did know them he found
himself making out as a background of the occupant some glory some prosperity
of the First Empire some Napoleonic glamour some dim lustre of the great
legend elements clinging still to all the consular chairs and mythological
brasses and sphinxes heads and faded surfaces of satin striped with alternate
silk
The place itself went further back that he guessed and how old Paris
continued in a manner to echo there but the postrevolutionary period the
world he vaguely thought of as the world of Châteaubriand of Madame de Staël
even of the young Lamartine had left its stamp of harps and urns and torches a
stamp impressed on sundry small objects ornaments and relics He had never
before to his knowledge had present to him relics of any special dignity of
a private order little old miniatures medallions pictures books books in
leather bindings pinkish and greenish with gilt garlands on the back ranged
together with other promiscuous properties under the glass of brassmounted
cabinets His attention took them all tenderly into account They were among the
matters that marked Madame de Vionnets apartment as something quite different
from Miss Gostreys little museum of bargains and from Chads lovely home he
recognised it as founded much more on old accumulations that had possibly from
time to time shrunken than on any contemporary method of acquisition or form of
curiosity Chad and Miss Gostrey had rummaged and purchased and picked up and
exchanged sifting selecting comparing whereas the mistress of the scene
before him beautifully passive under the spell of transmission transmission
from her fathers line he quite made up his mind had only received accepted
and been quiet When she hadnt been quiet she had been moved at the most to
some occult charity for some fallen fortune There had been objects she or her
predecessors might even conceivably have parted with under need but Strether
couldnt suspect them of having sold old pieces to get better ones They would
have felt no difference as to better or worse He could but imagine their having
felt perhaps in emigration in proscription for his sketch was slight and
confused the pressure of want or the obligation of sacrifice
The pressure of want whatever might be the case with the other force
was however presumably not active now for the tokens of a chastened ease
still abounded after all many marks of a taste whose discriminations might
perhaps have been called eccentric He guessed at intense little preferences and
sharp little exclusions a deep suspicion of the vulgar and a personal view of
the right The general result of this was something for which he had no name on
the spot quite ready but something he would have come nearest to naming in
speaking of it as the air of supreme respectability the consciousness small
still reserved but none the less distinct and diffused of private honour The
air of supreme respectability that was a strange blank wall for his adventure
to have brought him to break his nose against It had in fact as he was now
aware filled all the approaches hovered in the court as he passed hung on the
staircase as he mounted sounded in the grave rumble of the old bell as little
electric as possible of which Chad at the door had pulled the ancient but
neatlykept tassel it formed in short the clearest medium of its particular
kind that he had ever breathed He would have answered for it at the end of a
quarter of an hour that some of the glass cases contained swords and epaulettes
of ancient colonels and generals medals and orders once pinned over hearts that
had long since ceased to beat snuffboxes bestowed on ministers and envoys
copies of works presented with inscriptions by authors now classic At bottom
of it all for him was the sense of her rare unlikeness to the women he had
known This sense had grown since the day before the more he recalled her and
had been above all singularly fed by his talk with Chad in the morning
Everything in fine made her immeasurably new and nothing so new as the old
house and the old objects There were books two or three on a small table near
his chair but they hadnt the lemoncoloured covers with which his eye had
begun to dally from the hour of his arrival and to the opportunity of a further
acquaintance with which he had for a fortnight now altogether succumbed On
another table across the room he made out the great Revue but even that
familiar face conspicuous in Mrs Newsomes parlours scarce counted here as a
modern note He was sure on the spot and he afterwards knew he was right
that this was a touch of Chads own hand What would Mrs Newsome say to the
circumstance that Chads interested influence kept her paperknife in the Revue
The interested influence at any rate had as we say gone straight to the point
had in fact soon left it quite behind
She was seated near the fire on a small stuffed and fringed chair one of
the few modern articles in the room and she leaned back in it with her hands
clasped in her lap and no movement in all her person but the fine prompt play
of her deep young face The fire under the low white marble undraped and
academic had burnt down to the silver ashes of light wood one of the windows
at a distance stood open to the mildness and stillness out of which in the
short pauses came the faint sound pleasant and homely almost rustic of a
plash and a clatter of sabots from some coachhouse on the other side of the
court Madame de Vionnet while Strether sat there wasnt to shift her posture
by an inch »I dont think you seriously believe in what youre doing« she
said »but all the same you know Im going to treat you quite as if I did«
»By which you mean« Strether directly replied »quite as if you didnt I
assure you it wont make the least difference with me how you treat me«
»Well« she said taking that menace bravely and philosophically enough
»the only thing that really matters is that you shall get on with me«
»Ah but I dont« he immediately returned
It gave her another pause which however she happily enough shook off
»Will you consent to go on with me a little provisionally as if you did«
Then it was that he saw how she had decidedly come all the way and there
accompanied it an extraordinary sense of her raising from somewhere below him
her beautiful suppliant eyes He might have been perched at his doorstep or at
his window and she standing in the road For a moment he let her stand and
couldnt moreover have spoken It had been sad of a sudden with a sadness that
was like a cold breath in his face »What can I do« he finally asked »but
listen to you as I promised Chadwick«
»Ah but what Im asking you« she quickly said »isnt what Mr Newsome had
in mind« She spoke at present he saw as if to take courageously all her risk
»This is my own idea and a different thing«
It gave poor Strether in truth uneasy as it made him too something of
the thrill of a bold perception justified »Well« he answered kindly enough »I
was sure a moment since that some idea of your own had come to you«
She seemed still to look up at him but now more serenely »I made out you
were sure and that helped it to come So you see« she continued »we do get
on«
»Oh but it appears to me I dont at all meet your request How can I when I
dont understand it«
»It isnt at all necessary you should understand it will do quite well
enough if you simply remember it Only feel I trust you and for nothing so
tremendous after all Just« she said with a wonderful smile »for common
civility«
Strether had a long pause while they sat again face to face as they had
sat scarce less conscious before the poor lady had crossed the stream She was
the poor lady for Strether now because clearly she had some trouble and her
appeal to him could only mean that her trouble was deep He couldnt help it it
wasnt his fault he had done nothing but by a turn of the hand she had somehow
made their encounter a relation And the relation profited by a mass of things
that were not strictly in it or of it by the very air in which they sat by the
high cold delicate room by the world outside and the little plash in the court
by the First Empire and the relics in the stiff cabinets by matters as far off
as those and by others as near as the unbroken clasp of her hands in her lap and
the look her expression had of being most natural when her eyes were most fixed
»You count upon me of course for something really much greater than it sounds«
»Oh it sounds great enough too« she laughed at this
He found himself in time on the point of telling her that she was as Miss
Barrace called it wonderful but catching himself up he said something else
instead »What was it Chads idea then that you should say to me«
»Ah his idea was simply what a mans idea always is to put every effort
off on the woman«
»The woman « Strether slowly echoed
»The woman he likes and just in proportion as he likes her In proportion
too for shifting the trouble as she likes him«
Strether followed it then with an abruptness of his own »How much do you
like Chad«
»Just as much as that to take all with you on myself« But she got at
once again away from this »Ive been trembling as if we were to stand or fall
by what you may think of me and Im even now« she went on wonderfully
»drawing a long breath and yes truly taking a great courage from the hope
that I dont in fact strike you as impossible«
»Thats at all events clearly« he observed after an instant »the way I
dont strike you«
»Well« she so far assented »as you havent yet said you wont have the
little patience with me I ask for «
»You draw splendid conclusions Perfectly But I dont understand them«
Strether pursued »You seem to me to ask for much more than you need What at
the worst for you what at the best for myself can I after all do I can use no
pressure that I havent used You come really late with your request Ive
already done all that for myself the case admits of Ive said my say and here
I am«
»Yes here you are fortunately« Madame de Vionnet laughed »Mrs Newsome«
she added in another tone »didnt think you can do so little«
He had an hesitation but he brought the words out »Well she thinks so
now«
»Do you mean by that « But she also hung fire
»Do I mean what«
She still rather faltered »Pardon me if I touch on it but if Im saying
extraordinary things why perhaps maynt I Besides doesnt it properly
concern us to know«
»To know what« he insisted as after thus beating about the bush she had
again dropped
She made the effort »Has she given you up«
He was amazed afterwards to think how simply and quietly he had met it »Not
yet« It was almost as if he were a trifle disappointed had expected still
more of her freedom But he went straight on »Is that what Chad has told you
will happen to me«
She was evidently charmed with the way he took it »If you mean if weve
talked of it most certainly And the questions not what has had least to do
with my wishing to see you«
»To judge if Im the sort of man a woman can «
»Precisely« she exclaimed »you wonderful gentleman I do judge I have
judged A woman cant Youre safe with every right to be Youd be much
happier if youd only believe it«
Strether was silent a little then he found himself speaking with a cynicism
of confidence of which even at the moment the sources were strange to him »I
try to believe it But its a marvel« he exclaimed »how you already get at
it«
Oh she was able to say »Remember how much I was on the way to it through
Mr Newsome before I saw you He thinks everything of your strength«
»Well I can bear almost anything« our friend briskly interrupted Deep and
beautiful on this her smile came back and with the effect of making him hear
what he had said just as she had heard it He easily enough felt that it gave
him away but what in truth had everything done but that It had been all very
well to think at moments that he was holding her nose down and that he had
coerced her what had he by this time done but let her practically see that he
accepted their relation What was their relation moreover though light and
brief enough in form as yet but whatever she might choose to make it Nothing
could prevent her certainly he couldnt from making it pleasant At the back
of his head behind everything was the sense that she was there before him
close to him in vivid imperative form one of the rare women he had so often
heard of read of thought of but never met whose very presence look voice
the mere contemporaneous fact of whom from the moment it was at all presented
made a relation of mere recognition That was not the kind of woman he had ever
found Mrs Newsome a contemporaneous fact who had been distinctly slow to
establish herself and at present confronted with Madame de Vionnet he felt
the simplicity of his original impression of Miss Gostrey She certainly had
been a fact of rapid growth but the world was wide each day was more and more
a new lesson There were at any rate even among the stranger ones relations and
relations »Of course I suit Chads grand way« he quickly added »He hasnt had
much difficulty in working me in«
She seemed to deny a little on the young mans behalf by the rise of her
eyebrows an intention of any process at all inconsiderate »You must know how
grieved hed be if you were to lose anything He believes you can keep his
mother patient«
Strether wondered with his eyes on her »I see Thats then what you really
want of me And how am I to do it Perhaps youll tell me that«
»Simply tell her the truth«
»And what do you call the truth«
»Well any truth about us all that you see yourself I leave it to you«
»Thank you very much I like« Strether laughed with a slight harshness
»the way you leave things«
But she insisted kindly gently as if it wasnt so bad »Be perfectly
honest Tell her all«
»All« he oddly echoed
»Tell her the simple truth« Madame de Vionnet again pleaded
»But what is the simple truth The simple truth is exactly what Im trying
to discover«
She looked about a while but presently she came back to him »Tell her
fully and clearly about us«
Strether meanwhile had been staring »You and your daughter«
»Yes little Jeanne and me Tell her« she just slightly quavered »you
like us«
»And what good will that do me Or rather« he caught himself up »what
good will it do you«
She looked graver »None you believe really«
Strether debated »She didnt send me out to like you«
»Oh« she charmingly contended »she sent you out to face the facts«
He admitted after an instant that there was something in that »But how can
I face them till I know what they are Do you want him« he then braced himself
to ask »to marry your daughter«
She gave a headshake as noble as it was prompt »No not that«
»And he really doesnt want to himself«
She repeated the movement but now with a strange light in her face »He
likes her too much«
Strether wondered »To be willing to consider you mean the question of
taking her to America«
»To be willing to do anything with her but be immensely kind and nice
really tender of her We watch over her and you must help us You must see her
again«
Strether felt awkward »Ah with pleasure shes so remarkably attractive«
The mothers eagerness with which Madame de Vionnet jumped at this was to
come back to him later as beautiful in its grace »The dear thing did please
you« Then as he met it with the largest »Oh« of enthusiasm »Shes perfect
Shes my joy«
»Well Im sure that if one were near her and saw more of her shed be
mine«
»Then« said Madame de Vionnet »tell Mrs Newsome that«
He wondered the more »What good will that do you« As she appeared unable
at once to say however he brought out something else »Is your daughter in
love with our friend«
»Ah« she rather startlingly answered »I wish youd find out«
He showed his surprise »I A stranger«
»Oh you wont be a stranger presently You shall see her quite I assure
you as if you werent«
It remained for him none the less an extraordinary notion »It seems to me
surely that if her mother cant «
»Ah little girls and their mothers today« she rather inconsequently broke
in But she checked herself with something she seemed to give out as after all
more to the point »Tell her Ive been good for him Dont you think I have«
It had its effect on him more than at the moment he quite measured Yet he
was consciously enough touched »Oh if its all you «
»Well it may not be all « she interrupted »but its to a great extent
Really and truly« she added in a tone that was to take its place with him among
things remembered
»Then its very wonderful« He smiled at her from a face that he felt as
strained and her own face for a moment kept him so At last she also got up
»Well dont you think that for that «
»I ought to save you« So it was that the way to meet her and the way as
well in a manner to get off came over him He heard himself use the
exorbitant word the very sound of which helped to determine his flight »Ill
save you if I can«
II
In Chads lovely home however one evening ten days later he felt himself
present at the collapse of the question of Jeanne de Vionnets shy secret He
had been dining there in the company of that young lady and her mother as well
as of other persons and he had gone into the petit salon at Chads request on
purpose to talk with her The young man had put this to him as a favour »I
should like so awfully to know what you think of her It will really be a chance
for you« he had said »to see the jeune fille I mean the type as she
actually is and I dont think that as an observer of manners its a thing you
ought to miss It will be an impression that whatever else you take you can
carry home with you where youll find again so much to compare it with«
Strether knew well enough with what Chad wished him to compare it and
though he entirely assented he hadnt yet somehow been so deeply reminded that
he was being as he constantly though mutely expressed it used He was as far
as ever from making out exactly to what end but he was none the less constantly
accompanied by a sense of the service he rendered He conceived only that this
service was highly agreeable to those who profited by it and he was indeed
still waiting for the moment at which he should catch it in the act of proving
disagreeable proving in some degree intolerable to himself He failed quite to
see how his situation could clear up at all logically except by some turn of
events that would give him the pretext of disgust He was building from day to
day on the possibility of disgust but each day brought forth meanwhile a new
and more engaging bend of the road That possibility was now ever so much
further from sight than on the eve of his arrival and he perfectly felt that
should it come at all it would have to be at best inconsequent and violent He
struck himself as a little nearer to it only when he asked himself what service
in such a life of utility he was after all rendering Mrs Newsome When he
wished to help himself to believe that he was still all right he reflected and
in fact with wonder on the unimpaired frequency of their correspondence in
relation to which what was after all more natural than that it should become
more frequent just in proportion as their problem became more complicated
Certain it is at any rate that he now often brought himself balm by the
question with the rich consciousness of yesterdays letter »Well what can I
do more than that what can I do more than tell her everything« To persuade
himself that he did tell her had told her everything he used to try to think
of particular things he hadnt told her When at rare moments and in the watches
of the night he pounced on one it generally showed itself to be to a deeper
scrutiny not quite truly of the essence When anything new struck him as
coming up or anything already noted as reappearing he always immediately
wrote as if for fear that if he didnt he would miss something and also that
he might be able to say to himself from time to time »She knows it now even
while I worry« It was a great comfort to him in general not to have left past
things to be dragged to light and explained not to have to produce at so late a
stage anything not produced or anything even veiled and attenuated at the
moment She knew it now that was what he said to himself tonight in relation
to the fresh fact of Chads acquaintance with the two ladies not to speak of
the fresher one of his own Mrs Newsome knew in other words that very night at
Woollett that he himself knew Madame de Vionnet and that he had conscientiously
been to see her also that he had found her remarkably attractive and that there
would probably be a good deal more to tell But she further knew or would know
very soon that again conscientiously he hadnt repeated his visit and that
when Chad had asked him on the Countesss behalf Strether made her out
vividly with a thought at the back of his head a Countess if he wouldnt
name a day for dining with her he had replied lucidly »Thank you very much
impossible« He had begged the young man would present his excuses and had
trusted him to understand that it couldnt really strike one as quite the
straight thing He hadnt reported to Mrs Newsome that he had promised to save
Madame de Vionnet but so far as he was concerned with that reminiscence he
hadnt at any rate promised to haunt her house What Chad had understood could
only in truth be inferred from Chads behaviour which had been in this
connexion as easy as in every other He was easy always when he understood he
was easier still if possible when he didnt he had replied that he would make
it all right and he had proceeded to do this by substituting the present
occasion as he was ready to substitute others for any for every occasion as
to which his old friend should have a funny scruple
»Oh but Im not a little foreign girl Im just as English as I can be«
Jeanne de Vionnet had said to him as soon as in the petit salon he sank shyly
enough on his own side into the place near her vacated by Madame Gloriani at
his approach Madame Gloriani who was in black velvet with white lace and
powdered hair and whose somewhat massive majesty melted at any contact into
the graciousness of some incomprehensible tongue moved away to make room for
the vague gentleman after benevolent greetings to him which embodied as he
believed in baffling accents some recognition of his face from a couple of
Sundays before Then he had remarked making the most of the advantage of his
years that it frightened him quite enough to find himself dedicated to the
entertainment of a little foreign girl There were girls he wasnt afraid of
he was quite bold with little Americans Thus it was that she had defended
herself to the end »Oh but Im almost American too Thats what mamma has
wanted me to be I mean like that for she has wanted me to have lots of
freedom She has known such good results from it«
She was fairly beautiful to him a faint pastel in an oval frame he
thought of her already as of some lurking image in a long gallery the portrait
of a small oldtime princess of whom nothing was known but that she had died
young Little Jeanne wasnt doubtless to die young but one couldnt all the
same bear on her lightly enough It was bearing hard it was bearing as he in
any case wouldnt bear to concern himself in relation to her with the
question of a young man Odious really the question of a young man one didnt
treat such a person as a maidservant suspected of a follower And then young
men young men well the thing was their business simply or was at all events
hers She was fluttered fairly fevered to the point of a little glitter that
came and went in her eyes and a pair of pink spots that stayed in her cheeks
with the great adventure of dining out and with the greater one still possibly
of finding a gentleman whom she must think of as very very old a gentleman
with eyeglasses wrinkles a long grizzled moustache She spoke the prettiest
English our friend thought that he had ever heard spoken just as he had
believed her a few minutes before to be speaking the prettiest French He
wondered almost wistfully if such a sweep of the lyre didnt react on the spirit
itself and his fancy had in fact before he knew it begun so to stray and
embroider that he finally found himself absent and extravagant sitting with
the child in a friendly silence Only by this time he felt her flutter to have
fortunately dropped and that she was more at her ease She trusted him liked
him and it was to come back to him afterwards that she had told him things She
had dipped into the waiting medium at last and found neither surge nor chill
nothing but the small splash she could herself make in the pleasant warmth
nothing but the safety of dipping and dipping again At the end of the ten
minutes he was to spend with her his impression with all it had thrown off and
all it had taken in was complete She had been free as she knew freedom
partly to show him that unlike other little persons she knew she had imbibed
that ideal She was delightfully quaint about herself but the vision of what
she had imbibed was what most held him It really consisted he was soon enough
to feel in just one great little matter the fact that whatever her nature
she was thoroughly he had to cast about for the word but it came bred He
couldnt of course on so short an acquaintance speak for her nature but the
idea of breeding was what she had meanwhile dropped into his mind He had never
yet known it so sharply presented Her mother gave it no doubt but her mother
to make that less sensible gave so much else besides and on neither of the two
previous occasions extraordinary woman Strether felt anything like what she
was giving tonight Little Jeanne was a case an exquisite case of education
whereas the Countess whom it so amused him to think of by that denomination
was a case also exquisite of well he didnt know what
»He has wonderful taste notre jeune homme« this was what Gloriani said to
him on turning away from the inspection of a small picture suspended near the
door of the room The high celebrity in question had just come in apparently in
search of Mademoiselle de Vionnet but while Strether had got up from beside her
their fellow guest with his eye sharply caught had paused for a long look The
thing was a landscape of no size but of the French school as our friend was
glad to feel he knew and also of a quality which he liked to think he should
also have guessed its frame was large out of proportion to the canvas and he
had never seen a person look at anything he thought just as Gloriani with his
nose very near and quick movements of the head from side to side and bottom to
top examined this feature of Chads collection The artist used that word the
next moment smiling courteously wiping his nippers and looking round him
further paying the place in short by the very manner of his presence and by
something Strether fancied he could make out in this particular glance such a
tribute as to the latters sense settled many things once for all Strether
was conscious at this instant for that matter as he hadnt yet been of how
round about him quite without him they were consistently settled Glorianis
smile deeply Italian he considered and finely inscrutable had had for him
during dinner at which they were not neighbours an indefinite greeting but
the quality in it was gone that had appeared on the other occasion to turn him
inside out it was as if even the momentary link supplied by the doubt between
them had snapped He was conscious now of the final reality which was that
there wasnt so much a doubt as a difference altogether all the more that over
the difference the famous sculptor seemed to signal almost condolingly yet oh
how vacantly as across some great flat sheet of water He threw out the bridge
of a charming hollow civility on which Strether wouldnt have trusted his own
full weight a moment That idea even though but transient and perhaps belated
had performed the office of putting Strether more at his ease and the blurred
picture had already dropped dropped with the sound of something else said and
with his becoming aware by another quick turn that Gloriani was now on the
sofa talking with Jeanne while he himself had in his ears again the familiar
friendliness and the elusive meaning of the »Oh oh oh« that had made him a
fortnight before challenge Miss Barrace in vain She had always the air this
picturesque and original lady who struck him so oddly as both antique and
modern she had always the air of taking up some joke that one had already had
out with her The point itself no doubt was what was antique and the use she
made of it what was modern He felt just now that her goodnatured irony did
bear on something and it troubled him a little that she wouldnt be more
explicit only assuring him with the pleasure of observation so visible in her
that she wouldnt tell him more for the world He could take refuge but in
asking her what she had done with Waymarsh though it must be added that he felt
himself a little on the way to a clue after she had answered that this personage
was in the other room engaged in conversation with Madame de Vionnet He
stared a moment at the image of such a conjunction then for Miss Barraces
benefit he wondered »Is she too then under the charm «
»No not a bit« Miss Barrace was prompt »She makes nothing of him Shes
bored She wont help you with him«
»Oh« Strether laughed »she cant do everything«
»Of course not wonderful as she is Besides he makes nothing of her She
wont take him from me though she wouldnt no doubt having other affairs in
hand even if she could Ive never« said Miss Barrace »seen her fail with any
one before And tonight when shes so magnificent it would seem to her
strange if she minded So at any rate I have him all Je suis tranquille«
Strether understood so far as that went but he was feeling for his clue
»She strikes you tonight as particularly magnificent«
»Surely Almost as Ive never seen her Doesnt she you Why its for you«
He persisted in his candour »For me «
»Oh oh oh« cried Miss Barrace who persisted in the opposite of that
quality
»Well« he acutely admitted »she is different Shes gay«
»Shes gay« Miss Barrace laughed »And she has beautiful shoulders though
theres nothing different in that«
»No« said Strether »one was sure of her shoulders It isnt her
shoulders«
His companion with renewed mirth and the finest sense between the puffs of
her cigarette of the drollery of things appeared to find their conversation
highly delightful »Yes it isnt her shoulders«
»What then is it« Strether earnestly enquired
»Why its she simply Its her mood Its her charm«
»Of course its her charm but were speaking of the difference«
»Well« Miss Barrace explained »shes just brilliant as we used to say
Thats all Shes various Shes fifty women«
»Ah but only one« Strether kept it clear »at a time«
»Perhaps But in fifty times «
»Oh we shant come to that« our friend declared and the next moment he had
moved in another direction »Will you answer me a plain question Will she ever
divorce«
Miss Barrace looked at him through all her tortoiseshell »Why should she«
It wasnt what he had asked for he signified but he met it well enough
»To marry Chad«
»Why should she marry Chad«
»Because Im convinced shes very fond of him She has done wonders for
him«
»Well then how could she do more Marrying a man or a woman either« Miss
Barrace sagely went on »is never the wonder for any Jack and Jill can bring
that off The wonder is their doing such things without marrying«
Strether considered a moment this proposition »You mean its so beautiful
for our friends simply to go on so«
But whatever he said made her laugh »Beautiful«
He nevertheless insisted »And that because its disinterested«
She was now however suddenly tired of the question »Yes then call it
that Besides shell never divorce Dont moreover« she added »believe
everything you hear about her husband«
»Hes not then« Strether asked »a wretch«
»Oh yes But charming«
»Do you know him«
»Ive met him Hes bien aimable«
»To every one but his wife«
»Oh for all I know to her too to any to every woman I hope you at any
rate« she pursued with a quick change »appreciate the care I take of Mr
Waymarsh«
»Oh immensely« But Strether was not yet in line »At all events« he
roundly brought out »the attachments an innocent one«
»Mine and his Ah« she laughed »dont rob it of all interest«
»I mean our friends here to the lady weve been speaking of« That was
what he had settled to as an indirect but none the less closely involved
consequence of his impression of Jeanne That was where he meant to stay »Its
innocent« he repeated »I see the whole thing«
Mystified by his abrupt declaration she had glanced over at Gloriani as at
the unnamed subject of his allusion but the next moment she had understood
though indeed not before Strether had noticed her momentary mistake and wondered
what might possibly be behind that too He already knew that the sculptor
admired Madame de Vionnet but did this admiration also represent an attachment
of which the innocence was discussable He was moving verily in a strange air
and on ground not of the firmest He looked hard for an instant at Miss Barrace
but she had already gone on »All right with Mr Newsome Why of course she is«
and she got gaily back to the question of her own good friend »I dare say
youre surprised that Im not worn out with all I see it being so much of
Sitting Bull But Im not you know I dont mind him I bear up and we get on
beautifully Im very strange Im like that and often I cant explain There
are people who are supposed interesting or remarkable or whatever and who bore
me to death and then there are others as to whom nobody can understand what
anybody sees in them in whom I see no end of things« Then after she had
smoked a moment »Hes touching you know« she said
»Know« Strether echoed »dont I indeed We must move you almost to
tears«
»Oh but I dont mean you« she laughed
»You ought to then for the worst sign of all as I must have it for you
is that you cant help me Thats when a woman pities«
»Ah but I do help you« she cheerfully insisted
Again he looked at her hard and then after a pause »No you dont«
Her tortoiseshell on its long chain rattled down »I help you with
Sitting Bull Thats a good deal«
»Oh that yes« But Strether hesitated »Do you mean he talks of me«
»So that I have to defend you No never«
»I see« Strether mused »Its too deep«
»Thats his only fault« she returned »that everything with him is too
deep He has depths of silence which he breaks only at the longest intervals
by a remark And when the remark comes its always something he has seen or felt
for himself never a bit banal That would be what one might have feared and
what would kill me But never« She smoked again as she thus with amused
complacency appreciated her acquisition »And never about you We keep clear of
you Were wonderful But Ill tell you what he does do« she continued »he
tries to make me presents«
»Presents« poor Strether echoed conscious with a pang that he hadnt yet
tried that in any quarter
»Why you see« she explained »hes as fine as ever in the victoria so that
when I leave him as I often do almost for hours he likes it so at the doors
of shops the sight of him there helps me when I come out to know my carriage
away off in the rank But sometimes for a change he goes with me into the
shops and then Ive all I can do to prevent his buying me things«
»He wants to treat you« Strether almost gasped at all he himself hadnt
thought of He had a sense of admiration »Oh hes much more in the real
tradition than I Yes« he mused »its the sacred rage«
»The sacred rage exactly« and Miss Barrace who hadnt before heard this
term applied recognised its bearing with a clap of her gemmed hands »Now I do
know why hes not banal But I do prevent him all the same and if you saw what
he sometimes selects from buying I save him hundreds and hundreds I only
take flowers«
»Flowers« Strether echoed again with a rueful reflexion How many nosegays
had her present converser sent
»Innocent flowers« she pursued »as much as he likes And he sends me
splendours he knows all the best places he has found them for himself hes
wonderful«
»He hasnt told them to me« her friend smiled »he has a life of his own«
But Strether had swung back to the consciousness that for himself after all it
never would have done Waymarsh hadnt Mrs Waymarsh in the least to consider
whereas Lambert Strether had constantly in the inmost honour of his thoughts
to consider Mrs Newsome He liked moreover to feel how much his friend was in
the real tradition Yet he had his conclusion »What a rage it is« He had
worked it out »Its an opposition«
She followed but at a distance »Thats what I feel Yet to what«
»Well he thinks you know that Ive a life of my own And I havent«
»You havent« She showed doubt and her laugh confirmed it »Oh oh oh«
»No not for myself I seem to have a life only for other people«
»Ah for them and with them Just now for instance with «
»Well with whom« he asked before she had had time to say
His tone had the effect of making her hesitate and even as he guessed
speak with a difference »Say with Miss Gostrey What do you do for her«
It really made him wonder »Nothing at all«
III
Madame de Vionnet having meanwhile come in was at present close to them and
Miss Barrace hereupon instead of risking a rejoinder became again with a look
that measured her from top to toe all mere longhandled appreciative
tortoiseshell She had struck our friend from the first of her appearing as
dressed for a great occasion and she met still more than on either of the
others the conception reawakened in him at their gardenparty the idea of the
femme du monde in her habit as she lived Her bare shoulders and arms were white
and beautiful the materials of her dress a mixture as he supposed of silk
and crape were of a silvery grey so artfully composed as to give an impression
of warm splendour and round her neck she wore a collar of large old emeralds
the green note of which was more dimly repeated at other points of her apparel
in embroidery in enamel in satin in substances and textures vaguely rich Her
head extremely fair and exquisitely festal was like a happy fancy a notion of
the antique on an old precious medal some silver coin of the Renaissance
while her slim lightness and brightness her gaiety her expression her
decision contributed to an effect that might have been felt by a poet as half
mythological and half conventional He could have compared her to a goddess
still partly engaged in a morning cloud or to a seanymph waisthigh in the
summer surge Above all she suggested to him the reflexion that the femme du
monde in these finest developments of the type was like Cleopatra in the
play indeed various and multifold She had aspects characters days nights
or had them at least showed them by a mysterious law of her own when in
addition to everything she happened also to be a woman of genius She was an
obscure person a muffled person one day and a showy person an uncovered
person the next He thought of Madame de Vionnet tonight as showy and
uncovered though he felt the formula rough because thanks to one of the
shortcuts of genius she had taken all his categories by surprise Twice during
dinner he had met Chads eyes in a longish look but these communications had in
truth only stirred up again old ambiguities so little was it clear from them
whether they were an appeal or an admonition »You see how Im fixed« was what
they appeared to convey yet how he was fixed was exactly what Strether didnt
see However perhaps he should see now
»Are you capable of the very great kindness of going to relieve Newsome for
a few minutes of the rather crushing responsibility of Madame Gloriani while I
say a word if hell allow me to Mr Strether of whom Ive a question to ask
Our host ought to talk a bit to those other ladies and Ill come back in a
minute to your rescue« She made this proposal to Miss Barrace as if her
consciousness of a special duty had just flickered up but that ladys
recognition of Strethers little start at it as at a betrayal on the speakers
part of a domesticated state was as mute as his own comment and after an
instant when their fellow guest had goodnaturedly left them he had been given
something else to think of »Why has Maria so suddenly gone Do you know« That
was the question Madame de Vionnet had brought with her
»Im afraid Ive no reason to give you but the simple reason Ive had from
her in a note the sudden obligation to join in the south a sick friend who has
got worse«
»Ah then she has been writing you«
»Not since she went I had only a brief explanatory word before she
started I went to see her« Strether explained »it was the day after I called
on you but she was already on her way and her concierge told me that in case
of my coming I was to be informed she had written to me I found her note when I
got home«
Madame de Vionnet listened with interest and with her eyes on Strethers
face then her delicately decorated head had a small melancholy motion »She
didnt write to me I went to see her« she added »almost immediately after I
had seen you and as I assured her I would do when I met her at Glorianis She
hadnt then told me she was to be absent and I felt at her door as if I
understood Shes absent with all respect to her sick friend though I know
indeed she has plenty so that I may not see her She doesnt want to meet me
again Well« she continued with a beautiful conscious mildness »I liked and
admired her beyond every one in the old time and she knew it perhaps thats
precisely what has made her go and I dare say I havent lost her for ever«
Strether still said nothing he had a horror as he now thought of himself of
being in question between women was in fact already quite enough on his way to
that and there was moreover as it came to him perceptibly something behind
these allusions and professions that should he take it in would square but ill
with his present resolve to simplify It was as if for him all the same her
softness and sadness were sincere He felt that not less when she soon went on
»Im extremely glad of her happiness« But it also left him mute sharp and
fine though the imputation it conveyed What it conveyed was that he was Maria
Gostreys happiness and for the least little instant he had the impulse to
challenge the thought He could have done so however only by saying »What then
do you suppose to be between us« and he was wonderfully glad a moment later not
to have spoken He would rather seem stupid any day than fatuous and he drew
back as well with a smothered inward shudder from the consideration of what
women of highlydeveloped type in particular might think of each other
Whatever he had come out for he hadnt come to go into that so that he
absolutely took up nothing his interlocutress had now let drop Yet though he
had kept away from her for days had laid wholly on herself the burden of their
meeting again she hadnt a gleam of irritation to show him »Well about Jeanne
now« she smiled it had the gaiety with which she had originally come in He
felt it on the instant to represent her motive and real errand But he had been
schooling her of a truth to say much in proportion to his little »Do you make
out that she has a sentiment I mean for Mr Newsome«
Almost resentful Strether could at last be prompt »How can I make out such
things«
She remained perfectly goodnatured »Ah but theyre beautiful little
things and you make out dont pretend everything in the world Havent
you« she asked »been talking with her«
»Yes but not about Chad At least not much«
»Oh you dont require much« she reassuringly declared But she immediately
changed her ground »I hope you remember your promise of the other day«
»To save you as you called it«
»I call it so still You will« she insisted »You havent repented«
He wondered »No but Ive been thinking what I meant«
She kept it up »And not a little what I did«
»No thats not necessary It will be enough if I know what I meant
myself«
»And dont you know« she asked »by this time«
Again he had a pause »I think you ought to leave it to me But how long«
he added »do you give me«
»It seems to me much more a question of how long you give me Doesnt our
friend here himself at any rate« she went on »perpetually make me present to
you«
»Not« Strether replied »by ever speaking of you to me«
»He never does that«
»Never«
She considered and if the fact was disconcerting to her effectually
concealed it The next minute indeed she had recovered »No he wouldnt But do
you need that«
Her emphasis was wonderful and though his eyes had been wandering he looked
at her longer now »I see what you mean«
»Of course you see what I mean«
Her triumph was gentle and she really had tones to make justice weep »Ive
before me what he owes you«
»Admit then that thats something« she said yet still with the same
discretion in her pride
He took in this note but went straight on »Youve made of him what I see
but what I dont see is how in the world youve done it«
»Ah thats another question« she smiled »The point is of what use is your
declining to know me when to know Mr Newsome as you do me the honour to find
him is just to know me«
»I see« he mused still with his eyes on her »I shouldnt have met you
tonight«
She raised and dropped her linked hands »It doesnt matter If I trust you
why cant you a little trust me too And why cant you also« she asked in
another tone »trust yourself« But she gave him no time to reply »Oh I shall
be so easy for you And Im glad at any rate youve seen my child«
»Im glad too« he said »but she does you no good«
»No good« Madame de Vionnet had a clear stare »Why shes an angel of
light«
»Thats precisely the reason Leave her alone Dont try to find out I
mean« he explained »about what you spoke to me of the way she feels«
His companion wondered »Because one really wont«
»Well because I ask you as a favour to myself not to Shes the most
charming creature Ive ever seen Therefore dont touch her Dont know dont
want to know And moreover yes you wont«
It was an appeal of a sudden and she took it in »As a favour to you«
»Well since you ask me«
»Anything everything you ask« she smiled »I shant know then never
Thank you« she added with peculiar gentleness as she turned away
The sound of it lingered with him making him fairly feel as if he had been
tripped up and had a fall In the very act of arranging with her for his
independence he had under pressure from a particular perception
inconsistently quite stupidly committed himself and with her subtlety
sensitive on the spot to an advantage she had driven in by a single word a
little golden nail the sharp intention of which he signally felt He hadnt
detached he had more closely connected himself and his eyes as he considered
with some intensity this circumstance met another pair which had just come
within their range and which struck him as reflecting his sense of what he had
done He recognised them at the same moment as those of little Bilham who had
apparently drawn near on purpose to speak to him and little Bilham wasnt in
the conditions the person to whom his heart would be most closed They were
seated together a minute later at the angle of the room obliquely opposite the
corner in which Gloriani was still engaged with Jeanne de Vionnet to whom at
first and in silence their attention had been benevolently given »I cant see
for my life« Strether had then observed »how a young fellow of any spirit
such a one as you for instance can be admitted to the sight of that young lady
without being hard hit Why dont you go in little Bilham« He remembered the
tone into which he had been betrayed on the gardenbench at the sculptors
reception and this might make up for that by being much more the right sort of
thing to say to a young man worthy of any advice at all »There would be some
reason«
»Some reason for what«
»Why for hanging on here«
»To offer my hand and fortune to Mademoiselle de Vionnet«
»Well« Strether asked »to what lovelier apparition could you offer them
Shes the sweetest little thing Ive ever seen«
»Shes certainly immense I mean shes the real thing I believe the pale
pink petals are folded up there for some wondrous efflorescence in time to
open that is to some great golden sun Im unfortunately but a small farthing
candle What chance in such a field for a poor little painterman«
»Oh youre good enough« Strether threw out
»Certainly Im good enough Were good enough I consider nous autres for
anything But shes too good Theres the difference They wouldnt look at me«
Strether lounging on his divan and still charmed by the young girl whose
eyes had consciously strayed to him he fancied with a vague smile Strether
enjoying the whole occasion as with dormant pulses at last awake and in spite of
new material thrust upon him thought over his companions words »Whom do you
mean by they She and her mother«
»She and her mother And she has a father too who whatever else he may be
certainly cant be indifferent to the possibilities she represents Besides
theres Chad«
Strether was silent a little »Ah but he doesnt care for her not I mean
it appears after all in the sense Im speaking of Hes not in love with her«
»No but hes her best friend after her mother Hes very fond of her He
has his ideas about what can be done for her«
»Well its very strange« Strether presently remarked with a sighing sense
of fulness
»Very strange indeed Thats just the beauty of it Isnt it very much the
kind of beauty you had in mind« little Bilham went on »when you were so
wonderful and so inspiring to me the other day Didnt you adjure me in accents
I shall never forget to see while Ive a chance everything I can and
really to see for it must have been that only you meant Well you did me no
end of good and Im doing my best I do make it out a situation«
»So do I« Strether went on after a moment But he had the next minute an
inconsequent question »How comes Chad so mixed up anyway«
»Ah ah ah« and little Bilham fell back on his cushions
It reminded our friend of Miss Barrace and he felt again the brush of his
sense of moving in a maze of mystic closed allusions Yet he kept hold of his
thread »Of course I understand really only the general transformation makes me
occasionally gasp Chad with such a voice in the settlement of the future of a
little countess no« he declared »it takes more time You say moreover« he
resumed »that were inevitably people like you and me out of the running The
curious fact remains that Chad himself isnt The situation doesnt make for it
but in a different one he could have her if he would«
»Yes but thats only because hes rich and because theres a possibility of
his being richer They wont think of anything but a great name or a great
fortune«
»Well« said Strether »hell have no great fortune on these lines He must
stir his stumps«
»Is that« little Bilham enquired »what you were saying to Madame de
Vionnet«
»No I dont say much to her Of course however« Strether continued »he
can make sacrifices if he likes«
Little Bilham had a pause »Oh hes not keen for sacrifices or thinks that
is possibly that he has made enough«
»Well it is virtuous« his companion observed with some decision
»Thats exactly« the young man dropped after a moment »what I mean«
It kept Strether himself silent a little »Ive made it out for myself« he
then went on »Ive really within the last halfhour got hold of it I
understand it in short at last which at first when you originally spoke to me
I didnt Nor when Chad originally spoke to me either«
»Oh« said little Bilham »I dont think that at that time you believed me«
»Yes I did and I believed Chad too It would have been odious and
unmannerly as well as quite perverse if I hadnt What interest have you in
deceiving me«
The young man cast about »What interest have I«
»Yes Chad might have But you«
»Ah ah ah« little Bilham exclaimed
It might on repetition as a mystification have irritated our friend a
little but he knew once more as we have seen where he was and his being
proof against everything was only another attestation that he meant to stay
there »I couldnt without my own impression realise Shes a tremendously
clever brilliant capable woman and with an extraordinary charm on top of it all
the charm we surely all of us this evening know what to think of It isnt
every clever brilliant capable woman that has it In fact its rare with any
woman So there you are« Strether proceeded as if not for little Bilhams
benefit alone »I understand what a relation with such a woman what such a
high fine friendship may be It cant be vulgar or coarse anyway and thats
the point«
»Yes thats the point« said little Bilham »It cant be vulgar or coarse
And bless us and save us it isnt Its upon my word the very finest thing I
ever saw in my life and the most distinguished«
Strether from beside him and leaning back with him as he leaned dropped on
him a momentary look which filled a short interval and of which he took no
notice He only gazed before him with intent participation »Of course what it
has done for him« Strether at all events presently pursued »of course what it
has done for him that is as to how it has so wonderfully worked isnt a
thing I pretend to understand Ive to take it as I find it There he is«
»There he is« little Bilham echoed »And its really and truly she I dont
understand either even with my longer and closer opportunity But Im like
you« he added »I can admire and rejoice even when Im a little in the dark
You see Ive watched it for some three years and especially for this last He
wasnt so bad before it as I seem to have made out that you think «
»Oh I dont think anything now« Strether impatiently broke in »that is but
what I do think I mean that originally for her to have cared for him «
»There must have been stuff in him Oh yes there was stuff indeed and much
more of it than ever showed I dare say at home Still you know« the young
man in all fairness developed »there was room for her and thats where she
came in She saw her chance and took it Thats what strikes me as having been
so fine But of course« he wound up »he liked her first«
»Naturally« said Strether
»I mean that they first met somehow and somewhere I believe in some
American house and she without in the least then intending it made her
impression Then with time and opportunity he made his and after that she was
as bad as he«
Strether vaguely took it up »As bad«
»She began that is to care to care very much Alone and in her horrid
position she found it when once she had started an interest It was it is
an interest and it did it continues to do a lot for herself as well So she
still cares She cares in fact« said little Bilham thoughtfully »more«
Strethers theory that it was none of his business was somehow not damaged
by the way he took this »More you mean than he« On which his companion
looked round at him and now for an instant their eyes met »More than he« he
repeated
Little Bilham for as long hung fire »Will you never tell any one«
Strether thought »Whom should I tell«
»Why I supposed you reported regularly «
»To people at home« Strether took him up »Well I wont tell them this«
The young man at last looked away »Then she does now care more than he«
»Oh« Strether oddly exclaimed
But his companion immediately met it »Havent you after all had your
impression of it Thats how youve got hold of him«
»Ah but I havent got hold of him«
»Oh I say« But it was all little Bilham said
»Its at any rate none of my business I mean« Strether explained »nothing
else than getting hold of him is« It appeared however to strike him as his
business to add »The fact remains nevertheless that she has saved him«
Little Bilham just waited »I thought that was what you were to do«
But Strether had his answer ready »Im speaking in connexion with her
of his manners and morals his character and life Im speaking of him as a
person to deal with and talk with and live with speaking of him as a social
animal«
»And isnt it as a social animal that you also want him«
»Certainly so that its as if she had saved him for us«
»It strikes you accordingly then« the young man threw out »as for you all
to save her«
»Oh for us all « Strether could but laugh at that It brought him back
however to the point he had really wished to make »Theyve accepted their
situation hard as it is Theyre not free at least shes not but they take
whats left to them Its a friendship of a beautiful sort and thats what
makes them so strong Theyre straight they feel and they keep each other up
Its doubtless she however who as you yourself have hinted feels it most«
Little Bilham appeared to wonder what he had hinted »Feels most that
theyre straight«
»Well feels that she is and the strength that comes from it She keeps him
up she keeps the whole thing up When people are able to its fine Shes
wonderful wonderful as Miss Barrace says and he is in his way too however
as a mere man he may sometimes rebel and not feel that he finds his account in
it She has simply given him an immense moral lift and what that can explain is
prodigious Thats why I speak of it as a situation It is one if there ever
was« And Strether with his head back and his eyes on the ceiling seemed to
lose himself in the vision of it
His companion attended deeply »You state it much better than I could«
»Oh you see it doesnt concern you«
Little Bilham considered »I thought you said just now that it doesnt
concern you either«
»Well it doesnt a bit as Madame de Vionnets affair But as we were again
saying just now what did I come out for but to save him«
»Yes to remove him«
»To save him by removal to win him over to himself thinking it best he
shall take up business thinking he must immediately do therefore whats
necessary to that end«
»Well« said little Bilham after a moment »you have won him over He does
think it best He has within a day or two again said to me as much«
»And that« Strether asked »is why you consider that he cares less than
she«
»Cares less for her than she for him Yes thats one of the reasons But
other things too have given me the impression A man dont you think« little
Bilham presently pursued »cant in such conditions care so much as a woman
It takes different conditions to make him and then perhaps he cares more
Chad« he wound up »has his possible future before him«
»Are you speaking of his business future«
»No on the contrary of the other the future of what you so justly call
their situation M de Vionnet may live for ever«
»So that they cant marry«
The young man waited a moment »Not being able to marry is all theyve with
any confidence to look forward to A woman a particular woman may stand that
strain But can a man« he propounded
Strethers answer was as prompt as if he had already for himself worked it
out »Not without a very high ideal of conduct But thats just what were
attributing to Chad And how for that matter« he mused »does his going to
America diminish the particular strain Wouldnt it seem rather to add to it«
»Out of sight out of mind« his companion laughed Then more bravely
»Wouldnt distance lessen the torment« But before Strether could reply »The
thing is you see Chad ought to marry« he wound up
Strether for a little appeared to think of it »If you talk of torments
you dont diminish mine« he then broke out The next moment he was on his feet
with a question »He ought to marry whom«
Little Bilham rose more slowly »Well some one he can some throughly nice
girl«
Strethers eyes as they stood together turned again to Jeanne »Do you
mean her«
His friend made a sudden strange face »After being in love with her mother
No«
»But isnt it exactly your idea that he isnt in love with her mother«
His friend once more had a pause »Well he isnt at any rate in love with
Jeanne«
»I dare say not«
»How can he be with any other woman«
»Oh that I admit But being in love isnt you know here« little Bilham
spoke in friendly reminder »thought necessary in strictness for marriage«
»And what torment to call a torment can there ever possibly be with a
woman like that« As if from the interest of his own question Strether had gone
on without hearing »Is it for her to have turned a man out so wonderfully too
only for somebody else« He appeared to make a point of this and little Bilham
looked at him now »When its for each other that people give things up they
dont miss them« Then he threw off as with an extravagance of which he was
conscious »Let them face the future together«
Little Bilham looked at him indeed »You mean that after all he shouldnt go
back«
»I mean that if he gives her up «
»Yes«
»Well he ought to be ashamed of himself« But Strether spoke with a sound
that might have passed for a laugh
Book Seventh
I
It wasnt the first time Strether had sat alone in the great dim church still
less was it the first of his giving himself up so far as conditions permitted
to its beneficent action on his nerves He had been to Notre Dame with Waymarsh
he had been there with Miss Gostrey he had been there with Chad Newsome and
had found the place even in company such a refuge from the obsession of his
problem that with renewed pressure from that source he had not unnaturally
recurred to a remedy meeting the case for the moment so indirectly no doubt
but so relievingly He was conscious enough that it was only for the moment but
good moments if he could call them good still had their value for a man who
by this time struck himself as living almost disgracefully from hand to mouth
Having so well learnt the way he had lately made the pilgrimage more than once
by himself had quite stolen off taking an unnoticed chance and making no
point of speaking of the adventure when restored to his friends
His great friend for that matter was still absent as well as remarkably
silent even at the end of three weeks Miss Gostrey hadnt come back She wrote
to him from Mentone admitting that he must judge her grossly inconsequent
perhaps in fact for the time odiously faithless but asking for patience for a
deferred sentence throwing herself in short on his generosity For her too she
could assure him life was complicated more complicated than he could have
guessed she had moreover made certain of him certain of not wholly missing
him on her return before her disappearance If furthermore she didnt burden
him with letters it was frankly because of her sense of the other great commerce
he had to carry on He himself at the end of a fortnight had written twice to
show how his generosity could be trusted but he reminded himself in each case
of Mrs Newsomes epistolary manner at the times when Mrs Newsome kept off
delicate ground He sank his problem he talked of Waymarsh and Miss Barrace of
little Bilham and the set over the river with whom he had again had tea and he
was easy for convenience about Chad and Madame de Vionnet and Jeanne He
admitted that he continued to see them he was decidedly so confirmed a haunter
of Chads premises and that young mans practical intimacy with them was so
undeniably great but he had his reason for not attempting to render for Miss
Gostreys benefit the impression of these last days That would be to tell her
too much about himself it being at present just from himself he was trying to
escape
This small struggle sprang not a little in its way from the same impulse
that had now carried him across to Notre Dame the impulse to let things be to
give them time to justify themselves or at least to pass He was aware of having
no errand in such a place but the desire not to be for the hour in certain
other places a sense of safety of simplification which each time he yielded
to it he amused himself by thinking of as a private concession to cowardice The
great church had no altar for his worship no direct voice for his soul but it
was none the less soothing even to sanctity for he could feel while there what
he couldnt elsewhere that he was a plain tired man taking the holiday he had
earned He was tired but he wasnt plain that was the pity and the trouble of
it he was able however to drop his problem at the door very much as if it had
been the copper piece that he deposited on the threshold in the receptacle of
the inveterate blind beggar He trod the long dim nave sat in the splendid
choir paused before the clustered chapels of the east end and the mighty
monument laid upon him its spell He might have been a student under the charm
of a museum which was exactly what in a foreign town in the afternoon of
life he would have liked to be free to be This form of sacrifice did at any
rate for the occasion as well as another it made him quite sufficiently
understand how within the precinct for the real refugee the things of the
world could fall into abeyance That was the cowardice probably to dodge
them to beg the question not to deal with it in the hard outer light but his
own oblivions were too brief too vain to hurt any one but himself and he had
a vague and fanciful kindness for certain persons whom he met figures of
mystery and anxiety and whom with observation for his pastime he ranked as
those who were fleeing from justice Justice was outside in the hard light and
injustice too but one was as absent as the other from the air of the long
aisles and the brightness of the many altars
Thus it was at all events that one morning some dozen days after the dinner
in the Boulevard Malesherbes at which Madame de Vionnet had been present with
her daughter he was called upon to play his part in an encounter that deeply
stirred his imagination He had the habit in these contemplations of watching
a fellow visitant here and there from a respectable distance remarking some
note of behaviour of penitence of prostration of the absolved relieved
state this was the manner in which his vague tenderness took its course the
degree of demonstration to which it naturally had to confine itself It hadnt
indeed so felt its responsibility as when on this occasion he suddenly measured
the suggestive effect of a lady whose supreme stillness in the shade of one of
the chapels he had two or three times noticed as he made and made once more
his slow circuit She wasnt prostrate not in any degree bowed but she was
strangely fixed and her prolonged immobility showed her while he passed and
paused as wholly given up to the need whatever it was that had brought her
there She only sat and gazed before her as he himself often sat but she had
placed herself as he never did within the focus of the shrine and she had
lost herself he could easily see as he would only have liked to do She was
not a wandering alien keeping back more than she gave but one of the familiar
the intimate the fortunate for whom these dealings had a method and a meaning
She reminded our friend since it was the way of nine tenths of his current
impressions to act as recalls of things imagined of some fine firm
concentrated heroine of an old story something he had heard read something
that had he had a hand for drama he might himself have written renewing her
courage renewing her clearness in splendidlyprotected meditation Her back
as she sat was turned to him but his impression absolutely required that she
should be young and interesting and she carried her head moreover even in the
sacred shade with a discernible faith in herself a kind of implied conviction
of consistency security impunity But what had such a woman come for if she
hadnt come to pray Strethers reading of such matters was it must be owned
confused but he wondered if her attitude were some congruous fruit of
absolution of »indulgence« He knew but dimly what indulgence in such a place
might mean yet he had as with a soft sweep a vision of how it might indeed
add to the zest of active rites All this was a good deal to have been denoted
by a mere lurking figure who was nothing to him but the last thing before
leaving the church he had the surprise of a still deeper quickening
He had dropped upon a seat halfway down the nave and again in the museum
mood was trying with head thrown back and eyes aloft to reconstitute a past
to reduce it in fact to the convenient terms of Victor Hugo whom a few days
before giving the rein for once in a way to the joy of life he had purchased
in seventy bound volumes a miracle of cheapness parted with he was assured by
the shopman at the price of the redandgold alone He looked doubtless while
he played his eternal nippers over Gothic glooms sufficiently rapt in
reverence but what his thought had finally bumped against was the question of
where among packed accumulations so multiform a wedge would be able to enter
Were seventy volumes in redandgold to be perhaps what he should most
substantially have to show at Woollett as the fruit of his mission It was a
possibility that held him a minute held him till he happened to feel that some
one unnoticed had approached him and paused Turning he saw that a lady stood
there as for a greeting and he sprang up as he next took her securely for
Madame de Vionnet who appeared to have recognised him as she passed near him on
her way to the door She checked quickly and gaily a certain confusion in him
came to meet it turned it back by an art of her own the confusion having
threatened him as he knew her for the person he had lately been observing She
was the lurking figure of the dim chapel she had occupied him more than she
guessed but it came to him in time luckily that he neednt tell her and that
no harm after all had been done She herself for that matter straightway
showing she felt their encounter as the happiest of accidents had for him a
»You come here too« that despoiled surprise of every awkwardness
»I come often« she said »I love this place but Im terrible in general
for churches The old women who live in them all know me in fact Im already
myself one of the old women Its like that at all events that I foresee I
shall end« Looking about for a chair so that he instantly pulled one nearer
she sat down with him again to the sound of an »Oh I like so much your also
being fond «
He confessed the extent of his feeling though she left the object vague
and he was struck with the tact the taste of her vagueness which simply took
for granted in him a sense of beautiful things He was conscious of how much it
was affected this sense by something subdued and discreet in the way she had
arranged herself for her special object and her morning walk he believed her
to have come on foot the way her slightly thicker veil was drawn a mere
touch but everything the composed gravity of her dress in which here and
there a dull winecolour seemed to gleam faintly through black the charming
discretion of her small compact head the quiet note as she sat of her folded
greygloved hands It was to Strethers mind as if she sat on her own ground
the light honours of which at an open gate she thus easily did him while all
the vastness and mystery of the domain stretched off behind When people were so
completely in possession they could be extraordinarily civil and our friend had
indeed at this hour a kind of revelation of her heritage She was romantic for
him far beyond what she could have guessed and again he found his small comfort
in the conviction that subtle though she was his impression must remain a
secret from her The thing that once more made him uneasy for secrets in
general was this particular patience she could have with his own want of colour
albeit that on the other hand his uneasiness pretty well dropped after he had
been for ten minutes as colourless as possible and at the same time as
responsive
The moments had already for that matter drawn their deepest tinge from the
special interest excited in him by his vision of his companions identity with
the person whose attitude before the glimmering altar had so impressed him This
attitude fitted admirably into the stand he had privately taken about her
connexion with Chad on the last occasion of his seeing them together It helped
him to stick fast at the point he had then reached it was there he had resolved
that he would stick and at no moment since had it seemed as easy to do so
Unassailably innocent was a relation that could make one of the parties to it so
carry herself If it wasnt innocent why did she haunt the churches into
which given the woman he could believe he made out she would never have come
to flaunt an insolence of guilt She haunted them for continued help for
strength for peace sublime support which if one were able to look at it so
she found from day to day They talked in low easy tones and with lifted
lingering looks about the great monument and its history and its beauty all
of which Madame de Vionnet professed came to her most in the other the outer
view »Well presently after we go« she said »walk round it again if you
like Im not in a particular hurry and it will be pleasant to look at it well
with you« He had spoken of the great romancer and the great romance and of
what to his imagination they had done for the whole mentioning to her
moreover the exorbitance of his purchase the seventy blazing volumes that were
so out of proportion
»Out of proportion to what«
»Well to any other plunge« Yet he felt even as he spoke how at that
instant he was plunging He had made up his mind and was impatient to get into
the air for his purpose was a purpose to be uttered outside and he had a fear
that it might with delay still slip away from him She however took her time
she drew out their quiet gossip as if she had wished to profit by their meeting
and this confirmed precisely an interpretation of her manner of her mystery
While she rose as he would have called it to the question of Victor Hugo her
voice itself the light low quaver of her deference to the solemnity about them
seemed to make her words mean something that they didnt mean openly Help
strength peace a sublime support she hadnt found so much of these things as
that the amount wouldnt be sensibly greater for any scrap his appearance of
faith in her might enable her to feel in her hand Every little in a long
strain helped and if he happened to affect her as a firm object she could hold
on by he wouldnt jerk himself out of her reach People in difficulties held on
by what was nearest and he was perhaps after all not further off than sources
of comfort more abstract It was as to this he had made up his mind he had made
it up that is to give her a sign The sign would be that though it was her
own affair he understood the sign would be that though it was her own
affair she was free to clutch Since she took him for a firm object much as
he might to his own sense appear at times to rock he would do his best to be
one
The end of it was that half an hour later they were seated together for an
early luncheon at a wonderful a delightful house of entertainment on the left
bank a place of pilgrimage for the knowing they were both aware the knowing
who came for its great renown the homage of restless days from the other end
of the town Strether had already been there three times first with Miss
Gostrey then with Chad then with Chad again and with Waymarsh and little
Bilham all of whom he had himself sagaciously entertained and his pleasure was
deep now on learning that Madame de Vionnet hadnt yet been initiated When he
had said as they strolled round the church by the river acting at last on
what within he had made up his mind to »Will you if you have time come to
déjeuner with me somewhere For instance if you know it over there on the
other side which is so easy a walk« and then had named the place when he had
done this she stopped short as for quick intensity and yet deep difficulty of
response She took in the proposal as if it were almost too charming to be true
and there had perhaps never yet been for her companion so unexpected a moment of
pride so fine so odd a case at any rate as his finding himself thus able to
offer to a person in such universal possession a new a rare amusement She had
heard of the happy spot but she asked him in reply to a further question how in
the world he could suppose her to have been there He supposed himself to have
supposed that Chad might have taken her and she guessed this the next moment
to his no small discomfort
»Ah let me explain« she smiled »that I dont go about with him in public
I never have such chances not having them otherwise and its just the sort
of thing that as a quiet creature living in my hole I adore« It was more than
kind of him to have thought of it though frankly if he asked whether she had
time she hadnt a single minute That however made no difference shed throw
everything over Every duty at home domestic maternal social awaited her
but it was a case for a high line Her affairs would go to smash but hadnt one
a right to ones snatch of scandal when one was prepared to pay It was on this
pleasant basis of costly disorder consequently that they eventually seated
themselves on either side of a small table at a window adjusted to the busy
quay and the shining bargeburdened Seine where for an hour in the matter of
letting himself go of diving deep Strether was to feel he had touched bottom
He was to feel many things on this occasion and one of the first of them was
that he had travelled far since that evening in London before the theatre when
his dinner with Maria Gostrey between the pinkshaded candles had struck him
as requiring so many explanations He had at that time gathered them in the
explanations he had stored them up but it was at present as if he had either
soared above or sunk below them he couldnt tell which he could somehow think
of none that didnt seem to leave the appearance of collapse and cynicism easier
for him than lucidity How could he wish it to be lucid for others for any one
that he for the hour saw reasons enough in the mere way the bright clean
ordered waterside life came in at the open window the mere way Madame de
Vionnet opposite him over their intensely white tablelinen their omelette aux
tomates their bottle of strawcoloured Chablis thanked him for everything
almost with the smile of a child while her grey eyes moved in and out of their
talk back to the quarter of the warm spring air in which early summer had
already begun to throb and then back again to his face and their human
questions
Their human questions became many before they had done many more as one
after the other came up than our friends free fancy had at all foreseen The
sense he had had before the sense he had had repeatedly the sense that the
situation was running away with him had never been so sharp as now and all the
more that he could perfectly put his finger on the moment it had taken the bit
in its teeth That accident had definitely occurred the other evening after
Chads dinner it had occurred as he fully knew at the moment when he
interposed between this lady and her child when he suffered himself so to
discuss with her a matter closely concerning them that her own subtlety marked
by its significant »Thank you« instantly sealed the occasion in her favour
Again he had held off for ten days but the situation had continued out of hand
in spite of that the fact that it was running so fast being indeed just why he
had held off What had come over him as he recognised her in the nave of the
church was that holding off could be but a losing game from the instant she was
worked for not only by her subtlety but by the hand of fate itself If all the
accidents were to fight on her side and by the actual showing they loomed
large he could only give himself up This was what he had done in privately
deciding then and there to propose she should breakfast with him What did the
success of his proposal in fact resemble but the smash in which a regular
runaway properly ends The smash was their walk their déjeuner their omelette
the Chablis the place the view their present talk and his present pleasure in
it to say nothing wonder of wonders of her own To this tune and nothing
less accordingly was his surrender made good It sufficiently lighted up at
least the folly of holding off Ancient proverbs sounded for his memory in the
tone of their words and the clink of their glasses in the hum of the town and
the plash of the river It was clearly better to suffer as a sheep than as a
lamb One might as well perish by the sword as by famine
»Marias still away« that was the first thing she had asked him and when
he had found the frankness to be cheerful about it in spite of the meaning he
knew her to attach to Miss Gostreys absence she had gone on to enquire if he
didnt tremendously miss her There were reasons that made him by no means sure
yet he nevertheless answered »Tremendously« which she took in as if it were all
she had wished to prove Then »A man in trouble must be possessed somehow of a
woman« she said »if she doesnt come in one way she comes in another«
»Why do you call me a man in trouble«
»Ah because thats the way you strike me« She spoke ever so gently and as
if with all fear of wounding him while she sat partaking of his bounty »Arent
you in trouble«
He felt himself colour at the question and then hated that hated to pass
for anything so idiotic as woundable Woundable by Chads lady in respect to
whom he had come out with such a fund of indifference was he already at that
point Perversely none the less his pause gave a strange air of truth to her
supposition and what was he in fact but disconcerted at having struck her just
in the way he had most dreamed of not doing »Im not in trouble yet« he at
last smiled »Im not in trouble now«
»Well Im always so But that you sufficiently know« She was a woman who
between courses could be graceful with her elbows on the table It was a
posture unknown to Mrs Newsome but it was easy for a femme du monde »Yes I
am now«
»There was a question you put to me« he presently returned »the night of
Chads dinner I didnt answer it then and it has been very handsome of you not
to have sought an occasion for pressing me about it since«
She was instantly all there »Of course I know what you allude to I asked
you what you had meant by saying the day you came to see me just before you
let me that youd save me And you then said at our friends that youd
have really to wait to see for yourself what you did mean«
»Yes I asked for time« said Strether »And it sounds now as you put it
like a very ridiculous speech«
»Oh« she murmured she was full of attenuation But she had another
thought »If it does sound ridiculous why do you deny that youre in trouble«
»Ah if I were« he replied »it wouldnt be the trouble of fearing ridicule
I dont fear it«
»What then do you«
»Nothing now« And he leaned back in his chair
»I like your now« she laughed across at him
»Well its precisely that it fully comes to me at present that Ive kept
you long enough I know by this time at any rate what I meant by my speech
and I really knew it the night of Chads dinner«
»Then why didnt you tell me«
»Because it was difficult at the moment I had already at that moment done
something for you in the sense of what I had said the day I went to see you
but I wasnt then sure of the importance I might represent this as having«
She was all eagerness »And youre sure now«
»Yes I see that practically Ive done for you had done for you when you
put me your question all that its as yet possible to me to do I feel now«
he went on »that it may go further than I thought What I did after my visit to
you« he explained »was to write straight off to Mrs Newsome about you and
Im at last from one day to the other expecting her answer Its this answer
that will represent as I believe the consequences«
Patient and beautiful was her interest »I see the consequences of your
speaking for me« And she waited as if not to hustle him
He acknowledged it by immediately going on »The question you understand
was how I should save you Well Im trying it by thus letting her know that I
consider you worth saving«
»I see I see« Her eagerness broke through
»How can I thank you enough« He couldnt tell her that however and she
quickly pursued »You do really for yourself consider it«
His only answer at first was to help her to the dish that had been freshly
put before them »Ive written to her again since then Ive left her in no
doubt of what I think Ive told her all about you«
»Thanks not so much All about me« she went on »yes«
»All it seems to me youve done for him«
»Ah and you might have added all it seems to me« She laughed again while
she took up her knife and fork as in the cheer of these assurances »But youre
not sure how shell take it«
»No Ill not pretend Im sure«
»Voilà« And she waited a moment »I wish youd tell me about her«
»Oh« said Strether with a slightly strained smile »all that need concern
you about her is that shes really a grand person«
Madame de Vionnet seemed to demur »Is that all that need concern me about
her«
But Strether neglected the question »Hasnt Chad talked to you«
»Of his mother Yes a great deal immensely But not from your point of
view«
»He cant« our friend returned »have said any ill of her«
»Not the least bit He has given me like you the assurance that shes
really grand But her being really grand is somehow just what hasnt seemed to
simplify our case Nothing« she continued »is further from me than to wish to
say a word against her but of course I feel how little she can like being told
of her owing me anything No woman ever enjoys such an obligation to another
woman«
This was a proposition Strether couldnt contradict »And yet what other way
could I have expressed to her what I felt Its what there was most to say about
you«
»Do you mean then that she will be good to me«
»Its what Im waiting to see But Ive little doubt she would« he added
»if she could comfortably see you«
It seemed to strike her as a happy a beneficent thought »Oh then couldnt
that be managed Wouldnt she come out Wouldnt she if you so put it to her
Did you by any possibility« she faintly quavered
»Oh no« he was prompt »Not that It would be much more to give an
account of you that since theres no question of your paying the visit I
should go home first«
It instantly made her graver »And are you thinking of that«
»Oh all the while naturally«
»Stay with us stay with us« she exclaimed on this »Thats your only way
to make sure«
»To make sure of what«
»Why that he doesnt break up You didnt come out to do that to him«
»Doesnt it depend« Strether returned after a moment »on what you mean by
breaking up«
»Oh you know well enough what I mean«
His silence seemed again for a little to denote an understanding »You take
for granted remarkable things«
»Yes I do to the extent that I dont take for granted vulgar ones Youre
perfectly capable of seeing that what you came out for wasnt really at all to
do what youd now have to do«
»Ah its perfectly simple« Strether goodhumouredly pleaded »Ive had but
one thing to do to put our case before him To put it as it could only be put
here on the spot by personal pressure My dear lady« he lucidly pursued »my
work you see is really done and my reasons for staying on even another day
are none of the best Chads in possession of our case and professes to do it
full justice What remains is with himself Ive had my rest my amusement and
refreshment Ive had as we say at Woollett a lovely time Nothing in it has
been more lovely than this happy meeting with you in these fantastic
conditions to which youve so delightfully consented Ive a sense of success
Its what I wanted My getting all this good is what Chad has waited for and I
gather that if Im ready to go hes the same«
She shook her head with a finer deeper wisdom »Youre not ready If youre
ready why did you write to Mrs Newsome in the sense youve mentioned to me«
Strether considered »I shant go before I hear from her Youre too much
afraid of her« he added
It produced between them a long look from which neither shrank »I dont
think you believe that believe Ive not really reason to fear her«
»Shes capable of great generosity« Strether presently stated
»Well then let her trust me a little Thats all I ask Let her recognise in
spite of everything what Ive done«
»Ah remember« our friend replied »that she cant effectually recognise it
without seeing it for herself Let Chad go over and show her what youve done
and let him plead with her there for it and as it were for you«
She measured the depth of this suggestion »Do you give me your word of
honour that if she once has him there she wont do her best to marry him«
It made her companion this enquiry look again a while out at the view
after which he spoke without sharpness »When she sees for herself what he is «
But she had already broken in »Its when she sees for herself what he is
that shell want to marry him most«
Strethers attitude that of due deference to what she said permitted him
to attend for a minute to his luncheon »I doubt if that will come off It wont
be easy to make it«
»It will be easy if he remains there and hell remain for the money The
money appears to be as a probability so hideously much«
»Well« Strether presently concluded »nothing could really hurt you but his
marrying«
She gave a strange light laugh »Putting aside what may really hurt him«
But her friend looked at her as if he had thought of that too »The question
will come up of course of the future that you yourself offer him«
She was leaning back now but she fully faced him »Well let it come up«
»The point is that its for Chad to make of it what he can His being proof
against marriage will show what he does make«
»If he is proof yes« she accepted the proposition »But for myself« she
added »the question is what you make«
»Ah I make nothing Its not my affair«
»I beg your pardon Its just there that since youve taken it up and are
committed to it it most intensely becomes yours Youre not saving me I take
it for your interest in myself but for your interest in our friend The ones
at any rate wholly dependent on the other You cant in honour not see me
through« she wound up »because you cant in honour not see him«
Strange and beautiful to him was her quiet soft acuteness The thing that
most moved him was really that she was so deeply serious She had none of the
portentous forms of it but he had never come in contact it struck him with a
force brought to so fine a head Mrs Newsome goodness knew was serious but
it was nothing to this He took it all in he saw it all together »No« he
mused »I cant in honour not see him«
Her face affected him as with an exquisite light »You will then«
»I will«
At this she pushed back her chair and was the next moment on her feet
»Thank you« she said with her hand held out to him across the table and with no
less a meaning in the words than her lips had so particularly given them after
Chads dinner The golden nail she had then driven in pierced a good inch
deeper Yet he reflected that he himself had only meanwhile done what he had
made up his mind to on the same occasion So far as the essence of the matter
went he had simply stood fast on the spot on which he had then planted his feet
II
He received three days after this a communication from America in the form of a
scrap of blue paper folded and gummed not reaching him through his bankers but
delivered at his hotel by a small boy in uniform who under instructions from
the concierge approached him as he slowly paced the little court It was the
evening hour but daylight was long now and Paris more than ever penetrating
The scent of flowers was in the streets he had the whiff of violets perpetually
in his nose and he had attached himself to sounds and suggestions vibrations
of the air human and dramatic he imagined as they were not in other places
that came out for him more and more as the mild afternoons deepened a faroff
hum a sharp near click on the asphalt a voice calling replying somewhere and
as full of tone as an actors in a play He was to dine at home as usual with
Waymarsh they had settled to that for thrift and simplicity and he now hung
about before his friend came down
He read his telegram in the court standing still a long time where he had
opened it and giving five minutes afterwards to the renewed study of it At
last quickly he crumpled it up as if to get it out of the way in spite of
which however he kept it there still kept it when at the end of another
turn he had dropped into a chair placed near a small table Here with his
scrap of paper compressed in his fist and further concealed by his folding his
arms tight he sat for some time in thought gazed before him so straight that
Waymarsh appeared and approached him without catching his eye The latter in
fact struck with his appearance looked at him hard for a single instant and
then as if determined to that course by some special vividness in it dropped
back into the salon de lecture without addressing him But the pilgrim from
Milrose permitted himself still to observe the scene from behind the clear glass
plate of that retreat Strether ended as he sat by a fresh scrutiny of his
compressed missive which he smoothed out carefully again as he placed it on his
table There it remained for some minutes until at last looking up he saw
Waymarsh watching him from within It was on this that their eyes met met for
a moment during which neither moved But Strether then got up folding his
telegram more carefully and putting it into his waistcoat pocket
A few minutes later the friends were seated together at dinner but Strether
had meanwhile said nothing about it and they eventually parted after coffee in
the court with nothing said on either side Our friend had moreover the
consciousness that even less than usual was on this occasion said between them
so that it was almost as if each had been waiting for something from the other
Waymarsh had always more or less the air of sitting at the door of his tent and
silence after so many weeks had come to play its part in their concert This
note indeed to Strethers sense had lately taken a fuller tone and it was his
fancy tonight that they had never quite so drawn it out Yet it befell none
the less that he closed the door to confidence when his companion finally asked
him if there were anything particular the matter with him »Nothing« he
replied »more than usual«
On the morrow however at an early hour he found occasion to give an
answer more in consonance with the facts What was the matter had continued to
be so all the previous evening the first hours of which after dinner in his
room he had devoted to the copious composition of a letter He had quitted
Waymarsh for this purpose leaving him to his own resources with less ceremony
than their wont but finally coming down again with his letter unconcluded and
going forth into the streets without enquiry for his comrade He had taken a
long vague walk and one oclock had struck before his return and his reascent
to his room by the aid of the glimmering candleend left for him on the shelf
outside the porters lodge He had possessed himself on closing his door of
the numerous loose sheets of his unfinished composition and then without
reading them over had torn them into small pieces He had thereupon slept as
if it had been in some measure thanks to that sacrifice the sleep of the just
and had prolonged his rest considerably beyond his custom Thus it was that
when between nine and ten the tap of the knob of a walkingstick sounded on
his door he had not yet made himself altogether presentable Chad Newsomes
bright deep voice determined quickly enough none the less the admission of the
visitor The little blue paper of the evening before plainly an object the more
precious for its escape from premature destruction now lay on the sill of the
open window smoothed out afresh and kept from blowing away by the
superincumbent weight of his watch Chad looking about with careless and
competent criticism as he looked wherever he went immediately espied it and
permitted himself to fix it for a moment rather hard After which he turned his
eyes to his host »It has come then at last«
Strether paused in the act of pinning his necktie »Then you know Youve
had one too«
»No Ive had nothing and I only know what I see I see that thing and I
guess Well« he added »it comes as pat as in a play for Ive precisely turned
up this morning as I would have done yesterday but it was impossible to
take you«
»To take me« Strether had turned again to his glass
»Back at last as I promised Im ready Ive really been ready this
month Ive only been waiting for you as was perfectly right But youre
better now youre safe I see that for myself youve got all your good
Youre looking this morning as fit as a flea«
Strether at his glass finished dressing consulting that witness moreover
on this last opinion Was he looking preternaturally fit There was something in
it perhaps for Chads wonderful eye but he had felt himself for hours rather in
pieces Such a judgement however was after all but a contribution to his
resolve it testified unwittingly to his wisdom He was still firmer apparently
since it shone in him as a light than he had flattered himself His firmness
indeed was slightly compromised as he faced about to his friend by the way
this very personage looked though the case would of course have been worse
hadnt the secret of personal magnificence been at every hour Chads unfailing
possession There he was in all the pleasant morning freshness of it strong
and sleek and gay easy and fragrant and fathomless with happy health in his
colour and pleasant silver in his thick young hair and the right word for
everything on the lips that his clear brownness caused to show as red He had
never struck Strether as personally such a success it was as if now for his
definite surrender he had gathered himself vividly together This sharply and
rather strangely was the form in which he was to be presented to Woollett Our
friend took him in again he was always taking him in and yet finding that
parts of him still remained out though even thus his image showed through a
mist of other things »Ive had a cable« Strether said »from your mother«
»I dare say my dear man I hope shes well«
Strether hesitated »No shes not well Im sorry to have to tell you«
»Ah« said Chad »I must have had the instinct of it All the more reason
then that we should start straight off«
Strether had now got together hat gloves and stick but Chad had dropped on
the sofa as if to show where he wished to make his point He kept observing his
companions things he might have been judging how quickly they could be packed
He might even have wished to hint that hed send his own servant to assist
»What do you mean« Strether enquired »by straight off«
»Oh by one of next weeks boats Everything at this season goes out so light
that berths will be easy anywhere«
Strether had in his hand his telegram which he had kept there after
attaching his watch and he now offered it to Chad who however with an odd
movement declined to take it »Thanks Id rather not Your correspondence with
Mothers your own affair Im only with you both on it whatever it is«
Strether at this while their eyes met slowly folded the missive and put it in
his pocket after which before he had spoken again Chad broke fresh ground
»Has Miss Gostrey come back«
But when Strether presently spoke it wasnt in answer »Its not I gather
that your mothers physically ill her health on the whole this spring seems
to have been better than usual But shes worried shes anxious and it appears
to have risen within the last few days to a climax Weve tired out between us
her patience«
»Oh it isnt you« Chad generously protested
»I beg your pardon it is me« Strether was mild and melancholy but firm
He saw it far away and over his companions head »Its very particularly me«
»Well then all the more reason Marchons marchons« said the young man
gaily His host however at this but continued to stand agaze and he had the
next thing repeated his question of a moment before »Has Miss Gostrey come
back«
»Yes two days ago«
»Then youve seen her«
»No Im to see her today« But Strether wouldnt linger now on Miss
Gostrey »Your mother sends me an ultimatum If I cant bring you Im to leave
you Im to come at any rate myself«
»Ah but you can bring me now« Chad from his sofa reassuringly replied
Strether had a pause »I dont think I understand you Why was it that more
than a month ago you put it to me so urgently to let Madame de Vionnet speak
for you«
»Why« Chad considered but he had it at his fingers ends »Why but because
I knew how well shed do it It was the way to keep you quiet and to that
extent do you good Besides« he happily and comfortably explained »I wanted
you really to know her and to get the impression of her and you see the good
that has done you«
»Well« said Strether »the way she has spoken for you all the same so
far as Ive given her a chance has only made me feel how much she wishes to
keep you If you make nothing of that I dont see why you wanted me to listen to
her«
»Why my dear man« Chad exclaimed »I make everything of it How can you
doubt «
»I doubt only because you come to me this morning with your signal to
start«
Chad stared then gave a laugh »And isnt my signal to start just what
youve been waiting for«
Strether debated he took another turn »This last month Ive been awaiting
I think more than anything else the message I have here«
»You mean youve been afraid of it«
»Well I was doing my business in my own way And I suppose your present
announcement« Strether went on »isnt merely the result of your sense of what
Ive expected Otherwise you wouldnt have put me in relation « But he paused
pulling up
At this Chad rose »Ah her wanting me not to go has nothing to do with it
Its only because shes afraid afraid of the way that over there I may get
caught But her fears groundless«
He had met again his companions sufficiently searching look »Are you tired
of her«
Chad gave him in reply to this with a movement of the head the strangest
slow smile he had ever had from him »Never«
It had immediately on Strethers imagination so deep and soft an effect
that our friend could only for the moment keep it before him »Never«
»Never« Chad obligingly and serenely repeated
It made his companion take several more steps »Then youre not afraid«
»Afraid to go«
Strether pulled up again »Afraid to stay«
The young man looked brightly amazed »You want me now to stay«
»If I dont immediately sail the Pococks will immediately come out Thats
what I mean« said Strether »by your mothers ultimatum«
Chad showed a still livelier but not an alarmed interest »She has turned
on Sarah and Jim«
Strether joined him for an instant in the vision »Oh and you may be sure
Mamie Thats whom shes turning on«
This also Chad saw he laughed out »Mamie to corrupt me«
»Ah« said Strether »shes very charming«
»So youve already more than once told me I should like to see her«
Something happy and easy something above all unconscious in the way he
said this brought home again to his companion the facility of his attitude and
the enviability of his state »See her then by all means And consider too«
Strether went on »that you really give your sister a lift in letting her come
to you You give her a couple of months of Paris which she hasnt seen if Im
not mistaken since just after she was married and which Im sure she wants but
the pretext to visit«
Chad listened but with all his own knowledge of the world »She has had it
the pretext these several years yet she has never taken it«
»Do you mean you« Strether after an instant enquired
»Certainly the lone exile And whom do you mean« said Chad
»Oh I mean me Im her pretext That is for it comes to the same thing
Im your mothers«
»Then why« Chad asked »doesnt Mother come herself«
His friend gave him a long look »Should you like her to« And as he for the
moment said nothing »Its perfectly open to you to cable for her«
Chad continued to think »Will she come if I do«
»Quite possibly But try and youll see«
»Why dont you try« Chad after a moment asked
»Because I dont want to«
Chad thought »Dont desire her presence here«
Strether faced the question and his answer was the more emphatic »Dont
put it off my dear boy on me«
»Well I see what you mean Im sure youd behave beautifully but you
dont want to see her So I wont play you that trick«
»Ah« Strether declared »I shouldnt call it a trick Youve a perfect
right and it would be perfectly straight of you« Then he added in a different
tone »Youd have moreover in the person of Madame de Vionnet a very
interesting relation prepared for her«
Their eyes on this proposition continued to meet but Chads pleasant and
bold never flinched for a moment He got up at last and he said something with
which Strether was struck »She wouldnt understand her but that makes no
difference Madame de Vionnet would like to see her Shed like to be charming
to her She believes she could work it«
Strether thought a moment affected by this but finally turning away »She
couldnt«
»Youre quite sure« Chad asked
»Well risk it if you like«
Strether who uttered this with serenity had urged a plea for their now
getting into the air but the young man still waited »Have you sent your
answer«
»No Ive done nothing yet«
»Were you waiting to see me«
»No not that«
»Only waiting« and Chad with this had a smile for him »to see Miss
Gostrey«
»No not even Miss Gostrey I wasnt waiting to see any one I had only
waited till now to make up my mind in complete solitude and since I of
course absolutely owe you the information was on the point of going out with it
quite made up Have therefore a little more patience with me Remember«
Strether went on »that thats what you originally asked me to have Ive had
it you see and you see what has come of it Stay on with me«
Chad looked grave »How much longer«
»Well till I make you a sign I cant myself you know at the best or at
the worst stay for ever Let the Pococks come« Strether repeated
»Because it gains you time«
»Yes it gains me time«
Chad as if it still puzzled him waited a minute »You dont want to get
back to Mother«
»Not just yet Im not ready«
»You feel« Chad asked in a tone of his own »the charm of life over here«
»Immensely« Strether faced it »Youve helped me so to feel it that that
surely neednt surprise you«
»No it doesnt surprise me and Im delighted But what my dear man« Chad
went on with conscious queerness »does it all lead to for you«
The change of position and of relation for each was so oddly betrayed in
the question that Chad laughed out as soon as he had uttered it which made
Strether also laugh »Well to my having a certitude that has been tested that
has passed through the fire But oh« he couldnt help breaking out »if within
my first month here you had been willing to move with me «
»Well« said Chad while he broke down as for weight of thought
»Well we should have been over there by now«
»Ah but you wouldnt have had your fun«
»I should have had a month of it and Im having now if you want to know«
Strether continued »enough to last me for the rest of my days«
Chad looked amused and interested yet still somewhat in the dark partly
perhaps because Strethers estimate of fun had required of him from the first a
good deal of elucidation »It wouldnt do if I left you «
»Left me« Strether remained blank
»Only for a month or two time to go and come Madame de Vionnet« Chad
smiled »would look after you in the interval«
»To go back by yourself I remaining here« Again for an instant their eyes
had the question out after which Strether said »Grotesque«
»But I want to see Mother« Chad presently returned »Remember how long it
is since Ive seen Mother«
»Long indeed and thats exactly why I was originally so keen for moving
you Hadnt you shown us enough how beautifully you could do without it«
»Oh but« said Chad wonderfully »Im better now«
There was an easy triumph in it that made his friend laugh out again »Oh if
you were worse I should know what to do with you In that case I believe Id
have you gagged and strapped down carried on board resisting kicking How
much« Strether asked »do you want to see Mother«
»How much« Chad seemed to find it in fact difficult to say
»How much«
»Why as much as youve made me Id give anything to see her And youve
left me« Chad went on »in little enough doubt as to how much she wants it«
Strether thought a minute »Well then if those things are really your motive
catch the French steamer and sail tomorrow Of course when it comes to that
youre absolutely free to do as you choose From the moment you cant hold
yourself I can only accept your flight«
»Ill fly in a minute then« said Chad »if youll stay here«
»Ill stay here till the next steamer then Ill follow you«
»And do you call that« Chad asked »accepting my flight«
»Certainly its the only thing to call it The only way to keep me here
accordingly« Strether explained »is by staying yourself«
Chad took it in »All the more that Ive really dished you eh«
»Dished me« Strether echoed as inexpressively as possible
»Why if she sends out the Pococks it will be that she doesnt trust you and
if she doesnt trust you that bears upon well you know what«
Strether decided after a moment that he did know what and in consonance
with this he spoke »You see then all the more what you owe me«
»Well if I do see how can I pay«
»By not deserting me By standing by me«
»Oh I say « But Chad as they went downstairs clapped a firm hand in the
manner of a pledge upon his shoulder They descended slowly together and had
in the court of the hotel some further talk of which the upshot was that they
presently separated Chad Newsome departed and Strether left alone looked
about superficially for Waymarsh But Waymarsh hadnt yet it appeared come
down and our friend finally went forth without sight of him
III
At four oclock that afternoon he had still not seen him but he was then as to
make up for this engaged in talk about him with Miss Gostrey Strether had kept
away from home all day given himself up to the town and to his thoughts
wandered and mused been at once restless and absorbed and all with the
present climax of a rich little welcome in the Quartier Marboeuf »Waymarsh has
been unbeknown to me Im convinced« for Miss Gostrey had enquired »in
communication with Woollett the consequence of which was last night the
loudest possible call for me«
»Do you mean a letter to bring you home«
»No a cable which I have at this moment in my pocket a Come back by the
first ship«
Strethers hostess it might have been made out just escaped changing
colour Reflexion arrived but in time and established a provisional serenity It
was perhaps exactly this that enabled her to say with duplicity »And youre
going «
»You almost deserve it when you abandon me so«
She shook her head as if this were not worth taking up »My absence has
helped you as Ive only to look at you to see It was my calculation and Im
justified Youre not where you were And the thing« she smiled »was for me
not to be there either You can go of yourself«
»Oh but I feel today« he comfortably declared »that I shall want you
yet«
She took him all in again »Well I promise you not again to leave you but
it will only be to follow you Youve got your momentum and can toddle alone«
He intelligently accepted it »Yes I suppose I can toddle Its the sight
of that in fact that has upset Waymarsh He can bear it the way I strike him
as going no longer Thats only the climax of his original feeling He wants
me to quit and he must have written to Woollett that Im in peril of
perdition«
»Ah good« she murmured »But is it only your supposition«
»I make it out it explains«
»Then he denies or you havent asked him«
»Ive not had time« Strether said »I made it out but last night putting
various things together and Ive not been since then face to face with him«
She wondered »Because youre too disgusted You cant trust yourself«
He settled his glasses on his nose »Do I look in a great rage«
»You look divine«
»Theres nothing« he went on »to be angry about He has done me on the
contrary a service«
She made it out »By bringing things to a head«
»How well you understand« he almost groaned »Waymarsh wont in the least
at any rate when I have it out with him deny or extenuate He has acted from
the deepest conviction with the best conscience and after wakeful nights Hell
recognise that hes fully responsible and will consider that he has been highly
successful so that any discussion we may have will bring us quite together
again bridge the dark stream that has kept us so thoroughly apart We shall
have at last in the consequences of his act something we can definitely talk
about«
She was silent a little »How wonderfully you take it But youre always
wonderful«
He had a pause that matched her own then he had with an adequate spirit a
complete admission »Its quite true Im extremely wonderful just now I dare
say in fact Im quite fantastic and I shouldnt be at all surprised if I were
mad«
»Then tell me« she earnestly pressed As he however for the time answered
nothing only returning the look with which she watched him she presented
herself where it was easier to meet her »What will Mr Waymarsh exactly have
done«
»Simply have written a letter One will have been quite enough He has told
them I want looking after«
»And do you« she was all interest
»Immensely And I shall get it«
»By which you mean you dont budge«
»I dont budge«
»Youve cabled«
»No Ive made Chad do it«
»That you decline to come«
»That he declines We had it out this morning and I brought him round He
had come in before I was down to tell me he was ready ready I mean to
return And he went off after ten minutes with me to say he wouldnt«
Miss Gostrey followed with intensity »Then youve stopped him«
Strether settled himself afresh in his chair »Ive stopped him That is for
the time That« he gave it to her more vividly »is where I am«
»I see I see But wheres Mr Newsome He was ready« she asked »to go«
»All ready«
»And sincerely believing youd be«
»Perfectly I think so that he was amazed to find the hand I had laid on
him to pull him over suddenly converted into an engine for keeping him still«
It was an account of the matter Miss Gostrey could weigh »Does he think the
conversion sudden«
»Well« said Strether »Im not altogether sure what he thinks Im not sure
of anything that concerns him except that the more Ive seen of him the less
Ive found him what I originally expected Hes obscure and thats why Im
waiting«
She wondered »But for what in particular«
»For the answer to his cable«
»And what was his cable«
»I dont know« Strether replied »it was to be when he left me according
to his own taste I simply said to him I want to stay and the only way for me
to do so is for you to That I wanted to stay seemed to interest him and he
acted on that«
Miss Gostrey turned it over »He wants then himself to stay«
»He half wants it That is he half wants to go My original appeal has to
that extent worked in him Nevertheless« Strether pursued »he wont go Not
at least so long as Im here«
»But you cant« his companion suggested »stay here always I wish you
could«
»By no means Still I want to see him a little further Hes not in the
least the case I supposed hes quite another case And its as such that he
interests me« It was almost as if for his own intelligence that deliberate and
lucid our friend thus expressed the matter »I dont want to give him up«
Miss Gostrey but desired to help his lucidity She had however to be light
and tactful »Up you mean a to his mother«
»Well Im not thinking of his mother now Im thinking of the plan of which
I was the mouthpiece which as soon as we met I put before him as persuasively
as I knew how and which was drawn up as it were in complete ignorance of all
that in this last long period has been happening to him It took no account
whatever of the impression I was here on the spot immediately to begin to
receive from him impressions of which I feel sure Im far from having had the
last«
Miss Gostrey had a smile of the most genial criticism »So your idea is
more or less to stay out of curiosity«
»Call it what you like I dont care what its called «
»So long as you do stay Certainly not then I call it all the same
immense fun« Maria Gostrey declared »and to see you work it out will be one of
the sensations of my life It is clear you can toddle alone«
He received this tribute without elation »I shant be alone when the
Pococks have come«
Her eyebrows went up »The Pococks are coming«
»That I mean is what will happen and happen as quickly as possible in
consequence of Chads cable Theyll simply embark Sarah will come to speak for
her mother with an effect different from my muddle«
Miss Gostrey more gravely wondered »She then will take him back«
»Very possibly and we shall see She must at any rate have the chance and
she may be trusted to do all she can«
»And do you want that«
»Of course« said Strether »I want it I want to play fair«
But she had lost for a moment the thread »If it devolves on the Pococks why
do you stay«
»Just to see that I do play fair and a little also no doubt that they
do« Strether was luminous as he had never been »I came out to find myself in
presence of new facts facts that have kept striking me as less and less met by
our old reasons The matters perfectly simple New reasons reasons as new as
the facts themselves are wanted and of this our friends at Woollett Chads
and mine were at the earliest moment definitely notified If any are
producible Mrs Pocock will produce them shell bring over the whole
collection Theyll be« he added with a pensive smile »a part of the fun you
speak of«
She was quite in the current now and floating by his side »Its Mamie so
far as Ive had it from you wholl be their great card« And then as his
contemplative silence wasnt a denial she significantly added »I think Im
sorry for her«
»I think I am« and Strether sprang up moving about a little as her eyes
followed him »But it cant be helped«
»You mean her coming out cant be«
He explained after another turn what he meant »The only way for her not to
come is for me to go home as I believe that on the spot I could prevent it
But the difficulty as to that is that if I do go home «
»I see I see« she had easily understood »Mr Newsome will do the same
and thats not« she laughed out now »to be thought of«
Strether had no laugh he had only a quiet comparatively placid look that
might have shown him as proof against ridicule »Strange isnt it«
They had in the matter that so much interested them come so far as this
without sounding another name to which however their present momentary silence
was full of a conscious reference Strethers question was a sufficient
implication of the weight it had gained with him during the absence of his
hostess and just for that reason a single gesture from her could pass for him
as a vivid answer Yet he was answered still better when she said in a moment
»Will Mr Newsome introduce his sister «
»To Madame de Vionnet« Strether spoke the name at last »I shall be greatly
surprised if he doesnt«
She seemed to gaze at the possibility »You mean youve thought of it and
youre prepared«
»Ive thought of it and Im prepared«
It was to her visitor now that she applied her consideration »Bon You are
magnificent«
»Well« he answered after a pause and a little wearily but still standing
there before her »well thats what just once in all my dull days I think I
shall like to have been«
Two days later he had news from Chad of a communication from Woollett in
response to their determinant telegram this missive being addressed to Chad
himself and announcing the immediate departure for France of Sarah and Jim and
Mamie Strether had meanwhile on his own side cabled he had but delayed that
act till after his visit to Miss Gostrey an interview by which as so often
before he felt his sense of things cleared up and settled His message to Mrs
Newsome in answer to her own had consisted of the words »Judge best to take
another month but with full appreciation of all reenforcements« He had added
that he was writing but he was of course always writing it was a practice that
continued oddly enough to relieve him to make him come nearer than anything
else to the consciousness of doing something so that he often wondered if he
hadnt really under his recent stress acquired some hollow trick one of the
specious arts of makebelieve Wouldnt the pages he still so freely dispatched
by the American post have been worthy of a showy journalist some master of the
great new science of beating the sense out of words Wasnt he writing against
time and mainly to show he was kind since it had become quite his habit not
to like to read himself over On those lines he could still be liberal yet it
was at best a sort of whistling in the dark It was unmistakeable moreover that
the sense of being in the dark now pressed on him more sharply creating
thereby the need for a louder and livelier whistle He whistled long and hard
after sending his message he whistled again and again in celebration of Chads
news there was an interval of a fortnight in which this exercise helped him He
had no great notion of what on the spot Sarah Pocock would have to say though
he had indeed confused premonitions but it shouldnt be in her power to say
it shouldnt be in any ones anywhere to say that he was neglecting her
mother He might have written before more freely but he had never written more
copiously and he frankly gave for a reason at Woollett that he wished to fill
the void created there by Sarahs departure
The increase of his darkness however and the quickening as I have called
it of his tune resided in the fact that he was hearing almost nothing He had
for some time been aware that he was hearing less than before and he was now
clearly following a process by which Mrs Newsomes letters could but logically
stop He hadnt had a line for many days and he needed no proof though he
was in time to have plenty that she wouldnt have put pen to paper after
receiving the hint that had determined her telegram She wouldnt write till
Sarah should have seen him and reported on him It was strange though it might
well be less so than his own behaviour appeared at Woollett It was at any rate
significant and what was remarkable was the way his friends nature and manner
put on for him through this very drop of demonstration a greater intensity It
struck him really that he had never so lived with her as during this period of
her silence the silence was a sacred hush a finer clearer medium in which her
idiosyncrasies showed He walked about with her sat with her drove with her
and dined facetoface with her a rare treat in his life as he could perhaps
have scarce escaped phrasing it and if he had never seen her so soundless he
had never on the other hand felt her so highly so almost austerely herself
pure and by the vulgar estimate cold but deep devoted delicate sensitive noble
Her vividness in these respects became for him in the special conditions
almost an obsession and though the obsession sharpened his pulses adding
really to the excitement of life there were hours at which to be less on the
stretch he directly sought forgetfulness He knew it for the queerest of
adventures a circumstance capable of playing such a part only for Lambert
Strether that in Paris itself of all places he should find this ghost of the
lady of Woollett more importunate than any other presence
When he went back to Maria Gostrey it was for the change to something else
And yet after all the change scarcely operated for he talked to her of Mrs
Newsome in these days as he had never talked before He had hitherto observed in
that particular a discretion and a law considerations that at present broke
down quite as if relations had altered They hadnt really altered he said to
himself so much as that came to for if what had occurred was of course that
Mrs Newsome had ceased to trust him there was nothing on the other hand to
prove that he shouldnt win back her confidence It was quite his present theory
that he would leave no stone unturned to do so and in fact if he now told Maria
things about her that he had never told before this was largely because it kept
before him the idea of the honour of such a womans esteem His relation with
Maria as well was strangely enough no longer quite the same this truth
though not too disconcertingly had come up between them on the renewal of
their meetings It was all contained in what she had then almost immediately
said to him it was represented by the remark she had needed but ten minutes to
make and that he hadnt been disposed to gainsay He could toddle alone and the
difference that showed was extraordinary The turn taken by their talk had
promptly confirmed this difference his larger confidence on the score of Mrs
Newsome did the rest and the time seemed already far off when he had held out
his small thirsty cup to the spout of her pail Her pail was scarce touched now
and other fountains had flowed for him she fell into her place as but one of
his tributaries and there was a strange sweetness a melancholy mildness that
touched him in her acceptance of the altered order
It marked for himself the flight of time or at any rate what he was pleased
to think of with irony and pity as the rush of experience it having been but
the day before yesterday that he sat at her feet and held on by her garment and
was fed by her hand It was the proportions that were changed and the
proportions were at all times he philosophised the very conditions of
perception the terms of thought It was as if with her effective little
entresol and her wide acquaintance her activities varieties promiscuities
the duties and devotions that took up nine tenths of her time and of which he
got guardedly but the sidewind it was as if she had shrunk to a secondary
element and had consented to the shrinkage with the perfection of tact This
perfection had never failed her it had originally been greater than his prime
measure for it it had kept him quite apart kept him out of the shop as she
called her huge general acquaintance made their commerce as quiet as much a
thing of the home alone the opposite of the shop as if she had never another
customer She had been wonderful to him at first with the memory of her little
entresol the image to which on most mornings at that time his eyes directly
opened but now she mainly figured for him as but part of the bristling total
though of course always as a person to whom he should never cease to be
indebted It would never be given to him certainly to inspire a greater
kindness She had decked him out for others and he saw at this point at least
nothing she would ever ask for She only wondered and questioned and listened
rendering him the homage of a wistful speculation She expressed it repeatedly
he was already far beyond her and she must prepare herself to lose him There
was but one little chance for her
Often as she had said it he met it for it was a touch he liked each time
the same way »My coming to grief«
»Yes then I might patch you up«
»Oh for my real smash if it takes place there will be no patching«
»But you surely dont mean it will kill you«
»No worse It will make me old«
»Ah nothing can do that The wonderful and special thing about you is that
you are at this time of day youth« Then she always made further one of
those remarks that she had completely ceased to adorn with hesitations or
apologies and that had by the same token in spite of their extreme
straightness ceased to produce in Strether the least embarrassment She made
him believe them and they became thereby as impersonal as truth itself »Its
just your particular charm«
His answer too was always the same »Of course Im youth youth for the
trip to Europe I began to be young or at least to get the benefit of it the
moment I met you at Chester and thats what has been taking place ever since I
never had the benefit at the proper time which comes to saying that I never
had the thing itself Im having the benefit at this moment I had it the other
day when I said to Chad Wait I shall have it still again when Sarah Pocock
arrives Its a benefit that would make a poor show for many people and I dont
know who else but you and I frankly could begin to see in it what I feel I
dont get drunk I dont pursue the ladies I dont spend money I dont even
write sonnets But nevertheless Im making up late for what I didnt have early
I cultivate my little benefit in my own little way It amuses me more than
anything that has happened to me in all my life They may say what they like
its my surrender its my tribute to youth One puts that in where one can
it has to come in somewhere if only out of the lives the conditions the
feelings of other persons Chad gives me the sense of it for all his grey
hairs which merely make it solid in him and safe and serene and she does the
same for all her being older than he for all her marriageable daughter her
separated husband her agitated history Though theyre young enough my pair I
dont say theyre in the freshest way their own absolutely prime adolescence
for that has nothing to do with it The point is that theyre mine Yes theyre
my youth since somehow at the right time nothing else ever was What I meant
just now therefore is that it would all go go before doing its work if they
were to fail me«
On which just here Miss Gostrey inveterately questioned »What do you in
particular call its work«
»Well to see me through«
»But through what« she liked to get it all out of him
»Why through this experience« That was all that would come
It regularly gave her none the less the last word »Dont you remember how
in those first days of our meeting it was I who was to see you through«
»Remember Tenderly deeply« he always rose to it »Youre just doing your
part in letting me maunder to you thus«
»Ah dont speak as if my part were small since whatever else fails you «
»You wont ever ever ever« he thus took her up »Oh I beg your pardon
you necessarily you inevitably will Your conditions thats what I mean
wont allow me anything to do for you«
»Let alone I see what you mean that Im drearily dreadfully old I am
but theres a service possible for you to render that I know all the same
I shall think of«
»And what will it be«
This in fine however she would never tell him »You shall hear only if
your smash takes place As thats really out of the question I wont expose
myself« a point at which for reasons of his own Strether ceased to press
He came round for publicity it was the easiest thing to the idea that
his smash was out of the question and this rendered idle the discussion of what
might follow it He attached an added importance as the days elapsed to the
arrival of the Pococks he had even a shameful sense of waiting for it
insincerely and incorrectly He accused himself of making believe to his own
mind that Sarahs presence her impression her judgement would simplify and
harmonise he accused himself of being so afraid of what they might do that he
sought refuge to beg the whole question in a vain fury He had abundantly seen
at home what they were in the habit of doing and he had not at present the
smallest ground His clearest vision was when he made out that what he most
desired was an account more full and free of Mrs Newsomes state of mind than
any he felt he could now expect from herself that calculation at least went
hand in hand with the sharp consciousness of wishing to prove to himself that he
was not afraid to look his behaviour in the face If he was by an inexorable
logic to pay for it he was literally impatient to know the cost and he held
himself ready to pay in instalments The first instalment would be precisely
this entertainment of Sarah as a consequence of which moreover he should know
vastly better how he stood
Book Eighth
I
Strether rambled alone during these few days the effect of the incident of the
previous week having been to simplify in a marked fashion his mixed relations
with Waymarsh Nothing had passed between them in reference to Mrs Newsomes
summons but that our friend had mentioned to his own the departure of the
deputation actually at sea giving him thus an opportunity to confess to the
occult intervention he imputed to him Waymarsh however in the event confessed
to nothing and though this falsified in some degree Strethers forecast the
latter amusedly saw in it the same depth of good conscience out of which the
dear mans impertinence had originally sprung He was patient with the dear man
now and delighted to observe how unmistakeably he had put on flesh he felt his
own holiday so successfully large and free that he was full of allowances and
charities in respect to those cabined and confined his instinct toward a spirit
so strapped down as Waymarshs was to walk round it on tiptoe for fear of waking
it up to a sense of losses by this time irretrievable It was all very funny he
knew and but the difference as he often said to himself of tweedledum and
tweedledee an emancipation so purely comparative that it was like the advance
of the doormat on the scraper yet the present crisis was happily to profit by
it and the pilgrim from Milrose to know himself more than ever in the right
Strether felt that when he heard of the approach of the Pococks the impulse
of pity quite sprang up in him beside the impulse of triumph That was exactly
why Waymarsh had looked at him with eyes in which the heat of justice was
measured and shaded He had looked very hard as if affectionately sorry for the
friend the friend of fiftyfive whose frivolity had had thus to be recorded
becoming however but obscurely sententious and leaving his companion to
formulate a charge It was in this general attitude that he had of late
altogether taken refuge with the drop of discussion they were solemnly sadly
superficial Strether recognised in him the mere portentous rumination to which
Miss Barrace had so goodhumouredly described herself as assigning a corner of
her salon It was quite as if he knew his surreptitious step had been divined
and it was also as if he missed the chance to explain the purity of his motive
but this privation of relief should be precisely his small penance it was not
amiss for Strether that he should find himself to that degree uneasy If he had
been challenged or accused rebuked for meddling or otherwise pulled up he
would probably have shown on his own system all the height of his consistency
all the depth of his good faith Explicit resentment of his course would have
made him take the floor and the thump of his fist on the table would have
affirmed him as consciously incorruptible Had what now really prevailed with
Strether been but a dread of that thump a dread of wincing a little painfully
at what it might invidiously demonstrate However this might be at any rate
one of the marks of the crisis was a visible a studied lapse in Waymarsh of
betrayed concern As if to make up to his comrade for the stroke by which he had
played providence he now conspicuously ignored his movements withdrew himself
from the pretension to share them stiffened up his sensibility to neglect and
clasping his large empty hands and swinging his large restless foot clearly
looked to another quarter for justice
This made for independence on Strethers part and he had in truth at no
moment of his stay been so free to go and come The early summer brushed the
picture over and blurred everything but the near it made a vast warm fragrant
medium in which the elements floated together on the best of terms in which
rewards were immediate and reckonings postponed Chad was out of town again for
the first time since his visitors first view of him he had explained this
necessity without detail yet also without embarrassment the circumstance was
one of those which in the young mans life testified to the variety of his
ties Strether wasnt otherwise concerned with it than for its so testifying a
pleasant multitudinous image in which he took comfort He took comfort by the
same stroke in the swing of Chads pendulum back from that other swing the
sharp jerk towards Woollett so stayed by his own hand He had the entertainment
of thinking that if he had for that moment stopped the clock it was to promote
the next minute this still livelier motion He himself did what he hadnt done
before he took two or three times whole days off irrespective of others of
two or three taken with Miss Gostrey two or three taken with little Bilham he
went to Chartres and cultivated before the front of the cathedral a general
easy beatitude he went to Fontainebleau and imagined himself on the way to
Italy he went to Rouen with a little handbag and inordinately spent the night
One afternoon he did something quite different finding himself in the
neighbourhood of a fine old house across the river he passed under the great
arch of its doorway and asked at the porters lodge for Madame de Vionnet He
had already hovered more than once about that possibility been aware of it in
the course of ostensible strolls as lurking but round the corner Only it had
perversely happened after his morning at Notre Dame that his consistency as
he considered and intended it had come back to him whereby he had reflected
that the encounter in question had been none of his making clinging again
intensely to the strength of his position which was precisely that there was
nothing in it for himself From the moment he actively pursued the charming
associate of his adventure from that moment his position weakened for he was
then acting in an interested way It was only within a few days that he had
fixed himself a limit he promised himself his consistency should end with
Sarahs arrival It was arguing correctly to feel the title to a free hand
conferred on him by this event If he wasnt to be let alone he should be merely
a dupe to act with delicacy If he wasnt to be trusted he could at least take
his ease If he was to be placed under control he gained leave to try what his
position might agreeably give him An ideal rigour would perhaps postpone the
trial till after the Pococks had shown their spirit and it was to an ideal
rigour that he had quite promised himself to conform
Suddenly however on this particular day he felt a particular fear under
which everything collapsed He knew abruptly that he was afraid of himself and
yet not in relation to the effect on his sensibilities of another hour of Madame
de Vionnet What he dreaded was the effect of a single hour of Sarah Pocock as
to whom he was visited in troubled nights with fantastic waking dreams She
loomed at him larger than life she increased in volume as she drew nearer she
so met his eyes that his imagination taking after the first step all and
more than all the strides he already felt her come down on him already
burned under her reprobation with the blush of guilt already consented by
way of penance to the instant forfeiture of everything He saw himself under
her direction recommitted to Woollett as juvenile offenders are committed to
reformatories It wasnt of course that Woollett was really a place of
discipline but he knew in advance that Sarahs salon at the hotel would be His
danger at any rate in such moods of alarm was some concession on this
ground that would involve a sharp rupture with the actual therefore if he
waited to take leave of that actual he might wholly miss his chance It was
represented with supreme vividness by Madame de Vionnet and that is why in a
word he waited no longer He had seen in a flash that he must anticipate Mrs
Pocock He was accordingly much disappointed on now learning from the portress
that the lady of his quest was not in Paris She had gone for some days to the
country There was nothing in this accident but what was natural yet it
produced for poor Strether a drop of all confidence It was suddenly as if he
should never see her again and as if moreover he had brought it on himself by
not having been quite kind to her
It was the advantage of his having let his fancy lose itself for a little in
the gloom that as by reaction the prospect began really to brighten from the
moment the deputation from Woollett alighted on the platform of the station
They had come straight from Havre having sailed from New York to that port and
having also thanks to a happy voyage made land with a promptitude that left
Chad Newsome who had meant to meet them at the dock belated He had received
their telegram with the announcement of their immediate further advance just
as he was taking the train for Havre so that nothing had remained for him but
to await them in Paris He hastily picked up Strether at the hotel for this
purpose and he even with easy pleasantry suggested the attendance of Waymarsh
as well Waymarsh at the moment his cab rattled up being engaged under
Strethers contemplative range in a grave perambulation of the familiar court
Waymarsh had learned from his companion who had already had a note delivered
by hand from Chad that the Pococks were due and had ambiguously though as
always impressively glowered at him over the circumstance carrying himself in
a manner in which Strether was now expert enough to recognise his uncertainty
in the premises as to the best tone The only tone he aimed at with confidence
was a full tone which was necessarily difficult in the absence of a full
knowledge The Pococks were a quantity as yet unmeasured and as he had
practically brought them over so this witness had to that extent exposed
himself He wanted to feel right about it but could only at the best for the
time feel vague »I shall look to you you know immensely« our friend had
said »to help me with them« and he had been quite conscious of the effect of
the remark and of others of the same sort on his comrades sombre sensibility
He had insisted on the fact that Waymarsh would quite like Mrs Pocock one
could be certain he would he would be with her about everything and she would
also be with him and Miss Barraces nose in short would find itself out of
joint
Strether had woven this web of cheerfulness while they waited in the court
for Chad he had sat smoking cigarettes to keep himself quiet while caged and
leonine his fellow traveller paced and turned before him Chad Newsome was
doubtless to be struck when he arrived with the sharpness of their opposition
at this particular hour he was to remember as a part of it how Waymarsh came
with him and with Strether to the street and stood there with a face
halfwistful and halfrueful They talked of him the two others as they drove
and Strether put Chad in possession of much of his own strained sense of things
He had already a few days before named to him the wire he was convinced their
friend had pulled a confidence that had made on the young mans part quite
hugely for curiosity and diversion The action of the matter moreover Strether
could see was to penetrate he saw that is how Chad judged a system of
influence in which Waymarsh had served as a determinant an impression just now
quickened again with the whole bearing of such a fact on the youths view of
his relatives As it came up between them that they might now take their friend
for a feature of the control of these latter now sought to be exerted from
Woollett Strether felt indeed how it would be stamped all over him half an
hour later for Sarah Pococks eyes that he was as much on Chads side as
Waymarsh had probably described him He was letting himself at present go
there was no denying it it might be desperation it might be confidence he
should offer himself to the arriving travellers bristling with all the lucidity
he had cultivated
He repeated to Chad what he had been saying in the court to Waymarsh how
there was no doubt whatever that his sister would find the latter a kindred
spirit no doubt of the alliance based on an exchange of views that the pair
would successfully strike up They would become as thick as thieves which
moreover was but a development of what Strether remembered to have said in one
of his first discussions with his mate struck as he had then already been with
the elements of affinity between that personage and Mrs Newsome herself »I
told him one day when he had questioned me on your mother that she was a
person who when he should know her would rouse in him I was sure a special
enthusiasm and that hangs together with the conviction we now feel this
certitude that Mrs Pocock will take him into her boat For its your mothers
own boat that shes pulling«
»Ah« said Chad »Mothers worth fifty of Sally«
»A thousand but when you presently meet her all the same youll be
meeting your mothers representative just as I shall I feel like the outgoing
ambassador« said Strether »doing honour to his appointed successor« A moment
after speaking as he had just done he felt he had inadvertently rather cheapened
Mrs Newsome to her son an impression audibly reflected as at first seen in
Chads prompt protest He had recently rather failed of apprehension of the
young mans attitude and temper remaining principally conscious of how little
worry at the worst he wasted and he studied him at this critical hour with
renewed interest Chad had done exactly what he had promised him a fortnight
previous had accepted without another question his plea for delay He was
waiting cheerfully and handsomely but also inscrutably and with a slight
increase perhaps of the hardness originally involved in his acquired high
polish He was neither excited nor depressed was easy and acute and deliberate
unhurried unflurried unworried only at most a little less amused than usual
Strether felt him more than ever a justification of the extraordinary process of
which his own absurd spirit had been the arena he knew as their cab rolled
along knew as he hadnt even yet known that nothing else than what Chad had
done and had been would have led to his present showing They had made him
these things what he was and the business hadnt been easy it had taken time
and trouble it had cost above all a price The result at any rate was now to
be offered to Sally which Strether so far as that was concerned was glad to
be there to witness Would she in the least make it out or take it in the
result or would she in the least care for it if she did He scratched his chin
as he asked himself by what name when challenged as he was sure he should be
he could call it for her Oh those were determinations she must herself arrive
at since she wanted so much to see let her see then and welcome She had come
out in the pride of her competence yet it hummed in Strethers inner sense that
she practically wouldnt see
That this was moreover what Chad shrewdly suspected was clear from a word
that next dropped from him »Theyre children they play at life« and the
exclamation was significant and reassuring It implied that he hadnt then for
his companions sensibility appeared to give Mrs Newsome away and it
facilitated our friends presently asking him if it were his idea that Mrs
Pocock and Madame de Vionnet should become acquainted Strether was still more
sharply struck hereupon with Chads lucidity »Why isnt that exactly to
get a sight of the company I keep what she has come out for«
»Yes Im afraid it is« Strether unguardedly replied
Chads quick rejoinder lighted his precipitation »Why do you say youre
afraid«
»Well because I feel a certain responsibility Its my testimony I
imagine that will have been at the bottom of Mrs Pococks curiosity My
letters as Ive supposed you to understand from the beginning have spoken
freely Ive certainly said my little say about Madame de Vionnet«
All that for Chad was beautifully obvious »Yes but youve only spoken
handsomely«
»Never more handsomely of any woman But its just that tone «
»That tone« said Chad »that has fetched her I dare say but Ive no
quarrel with you about it And no more has Madame de Vionnet Dont you know by
this time how she likes you«
»Oh« and Strether had with his groan a real pang of melancholy »For
all Ive done for her«
»Ah youve done a great deal«
Chads urbanity fairly shamed him and he was at this moment absolutely
impatient to see the face Sarah Pocock would present to a sort of thing as he
synthetically phrased it to himself with no adequate forecast of which despite
his admonitions she would certainly arrive »Ive done this«
»Well this is all right She likes« Chad comfortably remarked »to be
liked«
It gave his companion a moments thought »And shes sure Mrs Pocock will
«
»No I say that for you She likes your liking her its so much as it
were« Chad laughed »to the good However she doesnt despair of Sarah either
and is prepared on her own side to go all lengths«
»In the way of appreciation«
»Yes and of everything else In the way of general amiability hospitality
and welcome Shes under arms« Chad laughed again »shes prepared«
Strether took it in then as if an echo of Miss Barrace were in the air
»Shes wonderful«
»You dont begin to know how wonderful«
There was a depth in it to Strethers ear of confirmed luxury almost a
kind of unconscious insolence of proprietorship but the effect of the glimpse
was not at this moment to foster speculation there was something so conclusive
in so much graceful and generous assurance It was in fact a fresh evocation
and the evocation had before many minutes another consequence »Well I shall
see her oftener now I shall see her as much as I like by your leave which is
what I hitherto havent done«
»It has been« said Chad but without reproach »only your own fault I
tried to bring you together and she my dear fellow I never saw her more
charming to any man But youve got your extraordinary ideas«
»Well I did have« Strether murmured while he felt both how they had
possessed him and how they had now lost their authority He couldnt have traced
the sequence to the end but it was all because of Mrs Pocock Mrs Pocock
might be because of Mrs Newsome but that was still to be proved What came
over him was the sense of having stupidly failed to profit where profit would
have been precious It had been open to him to see so much more of her and he
had but let the good days pass Fierce in him almost was the resolve to lose no
more of them and he whimsically reflected while at Chads side he drew nearer
to his destination that it was after all Sarah who would have quickened his
chance What her visit of inquisition might achieve in other directions was as
yet all obscure only not obscure that it would do supremely much to bring two
earnest persons together He had but to listen to Chad at this moment to feel
it for Chad was in the act of remarking to him that they of course both counted
on him he himself and the other earnest person for cheer and support It was
brave to Strether to hear him talk as if the line of wisdom they had struck out
was to make things ravishing to the Pococks No if Madame de Vionnet compassed
that compassed the ravishment of the Pococks Madame de Vionnet would be
prodigious It would be a beautiful plan if it succeeded and it all came to the
question of Sarahs being really bribeable The precedent of his own case helped
Strether perhaps but little to consider she might prove so it being distinct
that her character would rather make for every possible difference This idea of
his own bribeability set him apart for himself with the further mark in fact
that his case was absolutely proved He liked always where Lambert Strether was
concerned to know the worst and what he now seemed to know was not only that
he was bribeable but that he had been effectually bribed The only difficulty
was that he couldnt quite have said with what It was as if he had sold
himself but hadnt somehow got the cash That however was what
characteristically would happen to him It would naturally be his kind of
traffic While he thought of these things he reminded Chad of the truth they
mustnt lose sight of the truth that with all deference to her susceptibility
to new interests Sarah would have come out with a high firm definite purpose
»She hasnt come out you know to be bamboozled We may all be ravishing
nothing perhaps can be more easy for us but she hasnt come out to be ravished
She has come out just simply to take you home«
»Oh well with her Ill go« said Chad goodhumouredly »I suppose youll
allow that« And then as for a minute Strether said nothing »Or is your idea
that when Ive seen her I shant want to go« As this question however again
left his friend silent he presently went on »My own idea at any rate is that
they shall have while theyre here the best sort of time«
It was at this that Strether spoke »Ah there you are I think if you really
wanted to go «
»Well« said Chad to bring it out
»Well you wouldnt trouble about our good time You wouldnt care what sort
of a time we have«
Chad could always take in the easiest way in the world any ingenious
suggestion »I see But can I help it Im too decent«
»Yes youre too decent« Strether heavily sighed And he felt for the
moment as if it were the preposterous end of his mission
It ministered for the time to this temporary effect that Chad made no
rejoinder But he spoke again as they came in sight of the station »Do you mean
to introduce her to Miss Gostrey«
As to this Strether was ready »No«
»But havent you told me they know about her«
»I think Ive told you your mother knows«
»And wont she have told Sally«
»Thats one of the things I want to see«
»And if you find she has «
»Will I then you mean bring them together«
»Yes« said Chad with his pleasant promptness »to show her theres nothing
in it«
Strether hesitated »I dont know that I care very much what she may think
theres in it«
»Not if it represents what Mother thinks«
»Ah what does your mother think« There was in this some sound of
bewilderment
But they were just driving up and help of a sort might after all be quite
at hand »Isnt that my dear man what were both just going to make out«
II
Strether quitted the station half an hour later in different company Chad had
taken charge for the journey to the hotel of Sarah Mamie the maid and the
luggage all spaciously installed and conveyed and it was only after the four
had rolled away that his companion got into a cab with Jim A strange new
feeling had come over Strether in consequence of which his spirits had risen
it was as if what had occurred on the alighting of his critics had been
something other than his fear though his fear had yet not been of an instant
scene of violence His impression had been nothing but what was inevitable he
said that to himself yet relief and reassurance had softly dropped upon him
Nothing could be so odd as to be indebted for these things to the look of faces
and the sound of voices that had been with him to satiety as he might have
said for years but he now knew all the same how uneasy he had felt that was
brought home to him by his present sense of a respite It had come moreover in
the flash of an eye it had come in the smile with which Sarah whom at the
window of her compartment they had effusively greeted from the platform
rustled down to them a moment later fresh and handsome from her cool June
progress through the charming land It was only a sign but enough she was
going to be gracious and unallusive she was going to play the larger game
which was still more apparent after she had emerged from Chads arms in her
direct greeting to the valued friend of her family
Strether was then as much as ever the valued friend of her family it was
something he could at all events go on with and the manner of his response to
it expressed even for himself how little he had enjoyed the prospect of ceasing
to figure in that likeness He had always seen Sarah gracious had in fact
rarely seen her shy or dry her marked thinlipped smile intense without
brightness and as prompt to act as the scrape of a safetymatch the protrusion
of her rather remarkably long chin which in her case represented invitation and
urbanity and not as in most others pugnacity and defiance the penetration of
her voice to a distance the general encouragement and approval of her manner
were all elements with which intercourse had made him familiar but which he
noted today almost as if she had been a new acquaintance This first glimpse of
her had given a brief but vivid accent to her resemblance to her mother he
could have taken her for Mrs Newsome while she met his eyes as the train rolled
into the station It was an impression that quickly dropped Mrs Newsome was
much handsomer and while Sarah inclined to the massive her mother had at an
age still the girdle of a maid also the latters chin was rather short than
long and her smile by good fortune much more oh ever so much more
mercifully vague Strether had seen Mrs Newsome reserved he had literally
heard her silent though he had never known her unpleasant It was the case with
Mrs Pocock that he had known her unpleasant even though he had never known her
not affable She had forms of affability that were in a high degree assertive
nothing for instance had ever been more striking than that she was affable to
Jim
What had told in any case at the window of the train was her high clear
forehead that forehead which her friends for some reason always thought of as
a brow the long reach of her eyes it came out at this juncture in such a
manner as to remind him oddly enough also of that of Waymarshs and the
unusual gloss of her dark hair dressed and hatted after her mothers refined
example with such an avoidance of extremes that it was always spoken of at
Woollett as their own Though this analogy dropped as soon as she was on the
platform it had lasted long enough to make him feel all the advantage as it
were of his relief The woman at home the woman to whom he was attached was
before him just long enough to give him again the measure of the wretchedness
in fact really of the shame of their having to recognise the formation between
them of a split He had taken this measure in solitude and meditation but the
catastrophe as Sarah steamed up looked for its seconds unprecedentedly
dreadful or proved more exactly altogether unthinkable so that his finding
something free and familiar to respond to brought with it an instant renewal of
his loyalty He had suddenly sounded the whole depth had gasped at what he
might have lost
Well he could now for the quarter of an hour of their detention hover
about the travellers as soothingly as if their direct message to him was that he
had lost nothing He wasnt going to have Sarah write to her mother that night
that he was in any way altered or strange There had been times enough for a
month when it had seemed to him that he was strange that he was altered in
every way but that was a matter for himself he knew at least whose business it
was not it was not at all events such a circumstance as Sarahs own unaided
lights would help her to Even if she had come out to flash those lights more
than yet appeared she wouldnt make much headway against mere pleasantness He
counted on being able to be merely pleasant to the end and if only from
incapacity moreover to formulate anything different He couldnt even formulate
to himself his being changed and queer it had taken place the process
somewhere deep down Maria Gostrey had caught glimpses of it but how was he to
fish it up even if he desired for Mrs Pocock This was then the spirit in
which he hovered and with the easier throb in it much indebted furthermore to
the impression of high and established adequacy as a pretty girl promptly
produced in him by Mamie He had wondered vaguely turning over many things in
the fidget of his thoughts if Mamie were as pretty as Woollett published her
as to which issue seeing her now again was to be so swept away by Woolletts
opinion that this consequence really let loose for the imagination an avalanche
of others There were positively five minutes in which the last word seemed of
necessity to abide with a Woollett represented by a Mamie This was the sort of
truth the place itself would feel it would send her forth in confidence it
would point to her with triumph it would take its stand on her with assurance
it would be conscious of no requirements she didnt meet of no question she
couldnt answer
Well it was right Strether slipped smoothly enough into the cheerfulness
of saying granted that a community might be best represented by a young lady of
twentytwo Mamie perfectly played the part played it as if she were used to
it and looked and spoke and dressed the character He wondered if she mightnt
in the high light of Paris a cool full studiolight becoming yet treacherous
show as too conscious of these matters but the next moment he felt satisfied
that her consciousness was after all empty for its size rather too simple than
too mixed and that the kind way with her would be not to take many things out
of it but to put as many as possible in She was robust and conveniently tall
just a trifle too bloodlessly fair perhaps but with a pleasant public familiar
radiance that affirmed her vitality She might have been receiving for Woollett
wherever she found herself and there was something in her manner her tone her
motion her pretty blue eyes her pretty perfect teeth and her very small too
small nose that immediately placed her to the fancy between the windows of a
hot bright room in which voices were high up at that end to which people were
brought to be presented They were there to congratulate these images and
Strethers renewed vision on this hint completed the idea What Mamie was like
was the happy bride the bride after the church and just before going away She
wasnt the mere maiden and yet was only as much married as that quantity came
to She was in the brilliant acclaimed festal stage Well might it last her
long
Strether rejoiced in these things for Chad who was all genial attention to
the needs of his friends besides having arranged that his servant should
reenforce him the ladies were certainly pleasant to see and Mamie would be at
any time and anywhere pleasant to exhibit She would look extraordinarily like
his young wife the wife of a honeymoon should he go about with her but that
was his own affair or perhaps it was hers it was at any rate something she
couldnt help Strether remembered how he had seen him come up with Jeanne de
Vionnet in Glorianis garden and the fancy he had had about that the fancy
obscured now thickly overlaid with others the recollection was during these
minutes his only note of trouble He had often in spite of himself wondered if
Chad but too probably were not with Jeanne the object of a still and shaded
flame It was on the cards that the child might be tremulously in love and this
conviction now flickered up not a bit the less for his disliking to think of it
for its being in a complicated situation a complication the more and for
something indescribable in Mamie something at all events straightway lent her
by his own mind something that gave her value gave her intensity and purpose
as the symbol of an opposition Little Jeanne wasnt really at all in question
how could she be yet from the moment Miss Pocock had shaken her skirts on the
platform touched up the immense bows of her hat and settled properly over her
shoulder the strap of her moroccoandgilt travellingsatchel from that moment
little Jeanne was opposed
It was in the cab with Jim that impressions really crowded on Strether
giving him the strangest sense of length of absence from people among whom he
had lived for years Having them thus come out to him was as if he had returned
to find them and the droll promptitude of Jims mental reaction threw his own
initiation far back into the past Whoever might or mightnt be suited by what
was going on among them Jim for one would certainly be his instant
recognition frank and whimsical of what the affair was for him gave Strether
a glow of pleasure »I say you know this is about my shape and if it hadnt
been for you « so he broke out as the charming streets met his healthy
appetite and he wound up after an expressive nudge with a clap of his
companions knee and an »Oh you you you are doing it« that was charged with
rich meaning Strether felt in it the intention of homage but with a curiosity
otherwise occupied postponed taking it up What he was asking himself for the
time was how Sarah Pocock in the opportunity already given her had judged her
brother from whom he himself as they finally at the station separated for
their different conveyances had had a look into which he could read more than
one message However Sarah was judging her brother Chads conclusion about his
sister and about her husband and her husbands sister was at the least on the
way not to fail of confidence Strether felt the confidence and that as the
look between them was an exchange what he himself gave back was relatively
vague This comparison of notes however could wait everything struck him as
depending on the effect produced by Chad Neither Sarah nor Mamie had in any
way at the station where they had had after all ample time broken out about
it which to make up for this was what our friend had expected of Jim as soon
as they should find themselves together
It was queer to him that he had that noiseless brush with Chad an ironic
intelligence with this youth on the subject of his relatives an intelligence
carried on under their nose and as might be said at their expense such a
matter marked again for him strongly the number of stages he had come albeit
that if the number seemed great the time taken for the final one was but the
turn of a hand He had before this had many moments of wondering if he himself
werent perhaps changed even as Chad was changed Only what in Chad was
conspicuous improvement well he had no name ready for the working in his own
organism of his own more timid dose He should have to see first what this
action would amount to And for his occult passage with the young man after
all the directness of it had no greater oddity than the fact that the young
mans way with the three travellers should have been so happy a manifestation
Strether liked him for it on the spot as he hadnt yet liked him it affected
him while it lasted as he might have been affected by some light pleasant
perfect work of art to that degree that he wondered if they were really worthy
of it took it in and did it justice to that degree that it would have been
scarce a miracle if there in the luggageroom while they waited for their
things Sarah had pulled his sleeve and drawn him aside »Youre right we
havent quite known what you mean Mother and I but now we see Chads
magnificent what can one want more If this is the kind of thing « On which
they might as it were have embraced and begun to work together
Ah how much as it was for all her bridling brightness which was merely
general and noticed nothing would they work together Strether knew he was
unreasonable he set it down to his being nervous people couldnt notice
everything and speak of everything in a quarter of an hour Possibly no doubt
also he made too much of Chads display Yet none the less when at the end
of five minutes in the cab Jim Pocock had said nothing either hadnt said
that is what Strether wanted though he had said much else it all suddenly
bounced back to their being either stupid or wilful It was more probably on the
whole the former so that that would be the drawback of the bridling brightness
Yes they would bridle and be bright they would make the best of what was
before them but their observation would fail it would be beyond them they
simply wouldnt understand Of what use would it be then that they had come
if they werent to be intelligent up to that point unless indeed he himself
were utterly deluded and extravagant Was he on this question of Chads
improvement fantastic and away from the truth Did he live in a false world a
world that had grown simply to suit him and was his present slight irritation
in the face now of Jims silence in particular but the alarm of the vain thing
menaced by the touch of the real Was this contribution of the real possibly the
mission of the Pococks had they come to make the work of observation as he
had practised observation crack and crumble and to reduce Chad to the plain
terms in which honest minds could deal with him Had they come in short to be
sane where Strether was destined to feel that he himself had only been silly
He glanced at such a contingency but it failed to hold him long when once
he had reflected that he would have been silly in this case with Maria Gostrey
and little Bilham with Madame de Vionnet and little Jeanne with Lambert
Strether in fine and above all with Chad Newsome himself Wouldnt it be found
to have made more for reality to be silly with these persons than sane with
Sarah and Jim Jim in fact he presently made up his mind was individually out
of it Jim didnt care Jim hadnt come out either for Chad or for him Jim in
short left the moral side to Sally and indeed simply availed himself now for
the sense of recreation of the fact that he left almost everything to Sally He
was nothing compared to Sally and not so much by reason of Sallys temper and
will as by that of her more developed type and greater acquaintance with the
world He quite frankly and serenely confessed as he sat there with Strether
that he felt his type hang far in the rear of his wifes and still further if
possible in the rear of his sisters Their types he well knew were
recognised and acclaimed whereas the most a leading Woollett businessman could
hope to achieve socially and for that matter industrially was a certain
freedom to play into this general glamour
The impression he made on our friend was another of the things that marked
our friends road It was a strange impression especially as so soon produced
Strether had received it he judged all in the twenty minutes it struck him at
least as but in a minor degree the work of the long Woollett years Pocock was
normally and consentingly though not quite wittingly out of the question It was
despite his being normal it was despite his being cheerful it was despite his
being a leading Woollett businessman and the determination of his fate left
him thus perfectly usual as everything else about it was clearly to his
sense not less so He seemed to say that there was a whole side of life on
which the perfectly usual was for leading Woollett businessmen to be out of the
question He made no more of it than that and Strether so far as Jim was
concerned desired to make no more Only Strethers imagination as always
worked and he asked himself if this side of life were not somehow connected
for those who figured on it with the fact of marriage Would his relation to
it had he married ten years before have become now the same as Pococks Might
it even become the same should he marry in a few months Should he ever know
himself as much out of the question for Mrs Newsome as Jim knew himself in a
dim way for Mrs Jim
To turn his eyes in that direction was to be personally reassured he was
different from Pocock he had affirmed himself differently and was held after
all in higher esteem What none the less came home to him however at this
hour was that the society over there that of which Sarah and Mamie and in a
more eminent way Mrs Newsome herself were specimens was essentially a
society of women and that poor Jim wasnt in it He himself Lambert Strether
was as yet in some degree which was an odd situation for a man but it kept
coming back to him in a whimsical way that he should perhaps find his marriage
had cost him his place This occasion indeed whatever that fancy represented
was not a time of sensible exclusion for Jim who was in a state of manifest
response to the charm of his adventure Small and fat and constantly facetious
strawcoloured and destitute of marks he would have been practically
indistinguishable hadnt his constant preference for lightgrey clothes for
white hats for very big cigars and very little stories done what it could for
his identity There were signs in him though none of them plaintive of always
paying for others and the principal one perhaps was just this failure of type
It was with this that he paid rather than with fatigue or waste and also
doubtless a little with the effort of humour never irrelevant to the
conditions to the relations with which he was acquainted
He gurgled his joy as they rolled through the happy streets he declared
that his trip was a regular windfall and that he wasnt there he was eager to
remark to hang back from anything he didnt know quite what Sally had come
for but he had come for a good time Strether indulged him even while wondering
if what Sally wanted her brother to go back for was to become like her husband
He trusted that a good time was to be out and out the programme for all of
them and he assented liberally to Jims proposal that disencumbered and
irresponsible his things were in the omnibus with those of the others they
should take a further turn round before going to the hotel It wasnt for him to
tackle Chad it was Sallys job and as it would be like her he felt to open
fire on the spot it wouldnt be amiss of them to hold off and give her time
Strether on his side only asked to give her time so he jogged with his
companion along boulevards and avenues trying to extract from meagre material
some forecast of his catastrophe He was quick enough to see that Jim Pocock
declined judgement had hovered quite round the outer edge of discussion and
anxiety leaving all analysis of their question to the ladies alone and now only
feeling his way toward some small droll cynicism It broke out afresh the
cynicism it had already shown a flicker in a but slightly deferred »Well
hanged if I would if I were he«
»You mean you wouldnt in Chads place «
»Give up this to go back and boss the advertising« Poor Jim with his arms
folded and his little legs out in the open fiacre drank in the sparkling Paris
noon and carried his eyes from one side of their vista to the other »Why I want
to come right out and live here myself And I want to live while I am here too
I feel with you oh youve been grand old man and Ive twigged that it
aint right to worry Chad I dont mean to persecute him I couldnt in
conscience Its thanks to you at any rate that Im here and Im sure Im much
obliged Youre a lovely pair«
There were things in this speech that Strether let pass for the time »Dont
you then think it important the advertising should be thoroughly taken in hand
Chad will be so far as capacity is concerned« he went on »the man to do it«
»Where did he get his capacity« Jim asked »over here«
»He didnt get it over here and the wonderful thing is that over here he
hasnt inevitably lost it He has a natural turn for business an extraordinary
head He comes by that« Strether explained »honestly enough Hes in that
respect his fathers son and also for shes wonderful in her way too his
mothers He has other tastes and other tendencies but Mrs Newsome and your
wife are quite right about his having that Hes very remarkable«
»Well I guess he is« Jim Pocock comfortably sighed »But if youve
believed so in his making us hum why have you so prolonged the discussion
Dont you know weve been quite anxious about you«
These questions were not informed with earnestness but Strether saw he must
none the less make a choice and take a line »Because you see Ive greatly
liked it Ive liked my Paris I dare say Ive liked it too much«
»Oh you old wretch« Jim gaily exclaimed
»But nothings concluded« Strether went on »The case is more complex than
it looks from Woollett«
»Oh well it looks bad enough from Woollett« Jim declared
»Even after all Ive written«
Jim bethought himself »Isnt it what youve written that has made Mrs
Newsome pack us off That at least and Chads not turning up«
Strether made a reflexion of his own »I see That she should do something
was no doubt inevitable and your wife has therefore of course come out to
act«
»Oh yes« Jim concurred »to act But Sally comes out to act you know« he
lucidly added »every time she leaves the house She never comes out but she
does act Shes acting moreover now for her mother and that fixes the scale«
Then he wound up opening all his senses to it with a renewed embrace of
pleasant Paris »We havent all the same at Woollett got anything like this«
Strether continued to consider »Im bound to say for you all that you
strike me as having arrived in a very mild and reasonable frame of mind You
dont show your claws I felt just now in Mrs Pocock no symptom of that She
isnt fierce« he went on »Im such a nervous idiot that I thought she might
be«
»Oh dont you know her well enough« Pocock asked »to have noticed that she
never gives herself away any more than her mother ever does They aint fierce
either of em they let you come quite close They wear their fur the smooth
side out the warm side in Do you know what they are« Jim pursued as he
looked about him giving the question as Strether felt but half his care »do
you know what they are Theyre about as intense as they can live«
»Yes« and Strethers concurrence had a positive precipitation »theyre
about as intense as they can live«
»They dont lash about and shake the cage« said Jim who seemed pleaseds
with his analogy »and its at feedingtime that theyre quietest But they
always get there«
»They do indeed they always get there« Strether replied with a laugh that
justified his confession of nervousness He disliked to be talking sincerely of
Mrs Newsome with Pocock he could have talked insincerely But there was
something he wanted to know a need created in him by her recent intermission
by his having given from the first so much as now more than ever appeared to
him and got so little It was as if a queer truth in his companions metaphor
had rolled over him with a rush She had been quiet at feedingtime she had
fed and Sarah had fed with her out of the big bowl of all his recent free
communication his vividness and pleasantness his ingenuity and even his
eloquence while the current of her response had steadily run thin Jim
meanwhile however it was true slipped characteristically into shallowness from
the moment he ceased to speak out of the experience of a husband
»But of course Chad has now the advantage of being there before her If he
doesnt work that for all its worth « He sighed with contingent pity at his
brotherinlaws possible want of resource »He has worked it on you pretty
well eh« and he asked the next moment if there were anything new at the
Varieties which he pronounced in the American manner They talked about the
Varieties Strether confessing to a knowledge which produced again on Pococks
part a play of innuendo as vague as a nurseryrhyme yet as aggressive as an
elbow in his side and they finished their drive under the protection of easy
themes Strether waited to the end but still in vain for any show that Jim had
seen Chad as different and he could scarce have explained the discouragement he
drew from the absence of this testimony It was what he had taken his own stand
on so far as he had taken a stand and if they were all only going to see
nothing he had only wasted his time He gave his friend till the very last
moment till they had come into sight of the hotel and when poor Pocock only
continued cheerful and envious and funny he fairly grew to dislike him to feel
him extravagantly common If they were all going to see nothing Strether
knew as this came back to him that he was also letting Pocock represent for
him what Mrs Newsome wouldnt see He went on disliking in the light of Jims
commonness to talk to him about that lady yet just before the cab pulled up he
knew the extent of his desire for the real word from Woollett
»Has Mrs Newsome at all given way «
»Given way« Jim echoed it with the practical derision of his sense of a
long past
»Under the strain I mean of hope deferred of disappointment repeated and
thereby intensified«
»Oh is she prostrate you mean« he had his categories in hand »Why yes
shes prostrate just as Sally is But theyre never so lively you know as
when theyre prostrate«
»Ah Sarahs prostrate« Strether vaguely murmured
»Its when theyre prostrate that they most sit up«
»And Mrs Newsomes sitting up«
»All night my boy for you« And Jim fetched him with a vulgar little
guffaw a thrust that gave relief to the picture But he had got what he wanted
He felt on the spot that this was the real word from Woollett »So dont you go
home« Jim added while he alighted and while his friend letting him profusely
pay the cabman sat on in a momentary muse Strether wondered if that were the
real word too
III
As the door of Mrs Pococks salon was pushed open for him the next day well
before noon he was reached by a voice with a charming sound that made him just
falter before crossing the threshold Madame de Vionnet was already on the
field and this gave the drama a quicker pace than he felt it as yet though
his suspense had increased in the power of any act of his own to do He had
spent the previous evening with all his old friends together yet he would still
have described himself as quite in the dark in respect to a forecast of their
influence on his situation It was strange now none the less that in the light
of this unexpected note of her presence he felt Madame de Vionnet a part of that
situation as she hadnt even yet been She was alone he found himself assuming
with Sarah and there was a bearing in that somehow beyond his control on
his personal fate Yet she was only saying something quite easy and independent
the thing she had come as a good friend of Chads on purpose to say »There
isnt anything at all I should be so delighted«
It was clear enough when they were there before him how she had been
received He saw this as Sarah got up to greet him from something fairly
hectic in Sarahs face He saw furthermore that they werent as had first come
to him alone together he was at no loss as to the identity of the broad high
back presented to him in the embrasure of the window furthest from the door
Waymarsh whom he had today not yet seen whom he only knew to have left the
hotel before him and who had taken part the night previous on Mrs Pococks
kind invitation conveyed by Chad in the entertainment informal but cordial
promptly offered by that lady Waymarsh had anticipated him even as Madame de
Vionnet had done and with his hands in his pockets and his attitude unaffected
by Strethers entrance was looking out in marked detachment at the Rue de
Rivoli The latter felt it in the air it was immense how Waymarsh could mark
things that he had remained deeply dissociated from the overture to their
hostess that we have recorded on Madame de Vionnets side He had
conspicuously tact besides a stiff general view and this was why he had left
Mrs Pocock to struggle alone He would outstay the visitor he would
unmistakeably wait to what had he been doomed for months past but waiting
Therefore she was to feel that she had him in reserve What support she drew
from this was still to be seen for although Sarah was vividly bright she had
given herself up for the moment to an ambiguous flushed formalism She had had
to reckon more quickly than she expected but it concerned her first of all to
signify that she was not to be taken unawares Strether arrived precisely in
time for her showing it »Oh youre too good but I dont think I feel quite
helpless I have my brother and these American friends And then you know Ive
been to Paris I know Paris« said Sally Pocock in a tone that breathed a
certain chill on Strethers heart
»Ah but a woman in this tiresome place where everythings always changing
a woman of good will« Madame de Vionnet threw off »can always help a woman
Im sure you know but we know perhaps different things« She too visibly
wished to make no mistake but it was a fear of a different order and more kept
out of sight She smiled in welcome at Strether she greeted him more familiarly
than Mrs Pocock she put out her hand to him without moving from her place and
it came to him in the course of a minute and in the oddest way that yes
positively she was giving him over to ruin She was all kindness and ease but
she couldnt help so giving him she was exquisite and her being just as she
was poured for Sarah a sudden rush of meaning into his own equivocations How
could she know how she was hurting him She wanted to show as simple and humble
in the degree compatible with operative charm but it was just this that
seemed to put him on her side She struck him as dressed as arranged as
prepared infinitely to conciliate with the very poetry of good taste in her
view of the conditions of her early call She was ready to advise about
dressmakers and shops she held herself wholly at the disposition of Chads
family Strether noticed her card on the table her coronet and her Comtesse
and the imagination was sharp in him of certain private adjustments in Sarahs
mind She had never he was sure sat with a Comtesse before and such was the
specimen of that class he had been keeping to play on her She had crossed the
sea very particularly for a look at her but he read in Madame de Vionnets own
eyes that this curiosity hadnt been so successfully met as that she herself
wouldnt now have more than ever need of him She looked much as she had looked
to him that morning at Notre Dame he noted in fact the suggestive sameness of
her discreet and delicate dress It seemed to speak perhaps a little
prematurely or too finely of the sense in which she would help Mrs Pocock
with the shops The way that lady took her in moreover added depth to his
impression of what Miss Gostrey by their common wisdom had escaped He winced
as he saw himself but for that timely prudence ushering in Maria as a guide and
an example There was however a touch of relief for him in his glimpse so far
as he had got it of Sarahs line She knew Paris Madame de Vionnet had for
that matter lightly taken this up »Ah then youve a turn for that an affinity
that belongs to your family Your brother though his long experience makes a
difference I admit has become one of us in a marvellous way« And she appealed
to Strether in the manner of a woman who could always glide off with smoothness
into another subject Wasnt he struck with the way Mr Newsome had made the
place his own and hadnt he been in a position to profit by his friends
wondrous expertness
Strether felt the bravery at the least of her presenting herself so
promptly to sound that note and yet asked himself what other note after all
she could strike from the moment she presented herself at all She could meet
Mrs Pocock only on the ground of the obvious and what feature of Chads
situation was more eminent than the fact that he had created for himself a new
set of circumstances Unless she hid herself altogether she could show but as
one of these an illustration of his domiciled and indeed of his confirmed
condition And the consciousness of all this in her charming eyes was so clear
and fine that as she thus publicly drew him into her boat she produced in him
such a silent agitation as he was not to fail afterwards to denounce as
pusillanimous »Ah dont be so charming to me for it makes us intimate and
after all what is between us when Ive been so tremendously on my guard and have
seen you but half a dozen times« He recognised once more the perverse law that
so inveterately governed his poor personal aspects it would be exactly like the
way things always turned out for him that he should affect Mrs Pocock and
Waymarsh as launched in a relation in which he had really never been launched at
all They were at this very moment they could only be attributing to him the
full licence of it and all by the operation of her own tone with him whereas
his sole licence had been to cling with intensity to the brink not to dip so
much as a toe into the flood But the flicker of his fear on this occasion was
not as may be added to repeat itself it sprang up for its moment only to
die down and then go out for ever To meet his fellow visitors invocation and
with Sarahs brilliant eyes on him answer was quite sufficiently to step into
her boat During the rest of the time her visit lasted he felt himself proceed
to each of the proper offices successively for helping to keep the adventurous
skiff afloat It rocked beneath him but he settled himself in his place He
took up an oar and since he was to have the credit of pulling pulled
»That will make it all the pleasanter if it so happens that we do meet«
Madame de Vionnet had further observed in reference to Mrs Pococks mention of
her initiated state and she had immediately added that after all her hostess
couldnt be in need with the good offices of Mr Strether so close at hand
»Its he I gather who has learnt to know his Paris and to love it better
than any one ever before in so short a time so that between him and your
brother when it comes to the point how can you possibly want for good
guidance The great thing Mr Strether will show you« she smiled »is just to
let ones self go«
»Oh Ive not let myself go very far« Strether answered feeling quite as if
he had been called upon to hint to Mrs Pocock how Parisians could talk »Im
only afraid of showing I havent let myself go far enough Ive taken a good
deal of time but I must quite have had the air of not budging from one spot«
He looked at Sarah in a manner that he thought she might take as engaging and
he made under Madame de Vionnets protection as it were his first personal
point »What has really happened has been that all the while Ive done what I
came out for«
Yet it only at first gave Madame de Vionnet a chance immediately to take him
up »Youve renewed acquaintance with your friend youve learnt to know him
again« She spoke with such cheerful helpfulness that they might in a common
cause have been calling together and pledged to mutual aid
Waymarsh at this as if he had been in question straightway turned from
the window »Oh yes Countess he has renewed acquaintance with me and he has
I guess learnt something about me though I dont know how much he has liked
it Its for Strether himself to say whether he has felt it justifies his
course«
»Oh but you« said the Countess gaily »are not in the least what he came
out for is he really Strether and I hadnt you at all in my mind I was
thinking of Mr Newsome of whom we think so much and with whom precisely Mrs
Pocock has given herself the opportunity to take up threads What a pleasure for
you both« Madame de Vionnet with her eyes on Sarah bravely continued
Mrs Pocock met her handsomely but Strether quickly saw she meant to accept
no version of her movements or plans from any other lips She required no
patronage and no support which were but other names for a false position she
would show in her own way what she chose to show and this she expressed with a
dry glitter that recalled to him a fine Woollett winter morning »Ive never
wanted for opportunities to see my brother Weve many things to think of at
home and great responsibilities and occupations and our homes not an
impossible place Weve plenty of reasons« Sarah continued a little piercingly
»for everything we do« and in short she wouldnt give herself the least little
scrap away But she added as one who was always bland and who could afford a
concession »Ive come because well because we do come«
»Ah then fortunately« Madame de Vionnet breathed it to the air Five
minutes later they were on their feet for her to take leave standing together
in an affability that had succeeded in surviving a further exchange of remarks
only with the emphasised appearance on Waymarshs part of a tendency to revert
in a ruminating manner and as with an instinctive or a precautionary lightening
of his tread to an open window and his point of vantage The glazed and gilded
room all red damask ormolu mirrors clocks looked south and the shutters
were bowed upon the summer morning but the Tuileries garden and what was beyond
it over which the whole place hung were things visible through gaps so that
the farspreading presence of Paris came up in coolness dimness and invitation
in the twinkle of gilttipped palings the crunch of gravel the click of hoofs
the crack of whips things that suggested some parade of the circus »I think it
probable« said Mrs Pocock »that I shall have the opportunity of going to my
brothers Ive no doubt its very pleasant indeed« She spoke as to Strether
but her face was turned with an intensity of brightness to Madame de Vionnet
and there was a moment during which while she thus fronted her our friend
expected to hear her add »Im much obliged to you Im sure for inviting me
there« He guessed that for five seconds these words were on the point of
coming he heard them as clearly as if they had been spoken but he presently
knew they had just failed knew it by a glance quick and fine from Madame de
Vionnet which told him that she too had felt them in the air but that the
point had luckily not been made in any manner requiring notice This left her
free to reply only to what had been said
»That the Boulevard Malesherbes may be common ground for us offers me the
best prospect I see for the pleasure of meeting you again«
»Oh I shall come to see you since youve been so good« and Mrs Pocock
looked her invader well in the eyes The flush in Sarahs cheeks had by this
time settled to a small definite crimson spot that was not without its own
bravery she held her head a good deal up and it came to Strether that of the
two at this moment she was the one who most carried out the idea of a
Countess He quite took in however that she would really return her visitors
civility she wouldnt report again at Woollett without at least so much
producible history as that in her pocket
»I want extremely to be able to show you my little daughter« Madame de
Vionnet went on »and I should have brought her with me if I hadnt wished first
to ask your leave I was in hopes I should perhaps find Miss Pocock of whose
being with you Ive heard from Mr Newsome and whose acquaintance I should so
much like my child to make If I have the pleasure of seeing her and you do
permit it I shall venture to ask her to be kind to Jeanne Mr Strether will
tell you« she beautifully kept it up »that my poor girl is gentle and good
and rather lonely Theyve made friends he and she ever so happily and he
doesnt I believe think ill of her As for Jeanne herself he has had the same
success with her that I know he has had here wherever he has turned« She seemed
to ask him for permission to say these things or seemed rather to take it
softly and happily with the ease of intimacy for granted and he had quite the
consciousness now that not to meet her at any point more than halfway would be
odiously basely to abandon her Yes he was with her and opposed even in this
covert this semisafe fashion to those who were not he felt strangely and
confusedly but excitedly inspiringly how much and how far It was as if he
had positively waited in suspense for something from her that would let him in
deeper so that he might show her how he could take it And what did in fact
come as she drew out a little her farewell served sufficiently the purpose »As
his success is a matter that Im sure hell never mention for himself I feel
you see the less scruple which its very good of me to say you know by the
way« she added as she addressed herself to him »considering how little direct
advantage Ive gained from your triumphs with me When does one ever see you I
wait at home and I languish Youll have rendered me the service Mrs Pocock
at least« she wound up »of giving me one of my muchtoorare glimpses of this
gentleman«
»I certainly should be sorry to deprive you of anything that seems so much
as you describe it your natural due Mr Strether and I are very old friends«
Sarah allowed »but the privilege of his society isnt a thing I shall quarrel
about with any one«
»And yet dear Sarah« he freely broke in »I feel when I hear you say
that that you dont quite do justice to the important truth of the extent to
which as youre also mine Im your natural due I should like much better«
he laughed »to see you fight for me«
She met him Mrs Pocock on this with an arrest of speech with a certain
breathlessness as he immediately fancied on the score of a freedom for which
she wasnt quite prepared It had flared up for all the harm he had intended
by it because confoundedly he didnt want any more to be afraid about her
than he wanted to be afraid about Madame de Vionnet He had never naturally
called her anything but Sarah at home and though he had perhaps never quite so
markedly invoked her as his dear that was somehow partly because no occasion
had hitherto laid so effective a trap for it But something admonished him now
that it was too late unless indeed it were possibly too early and that he at
any rate shouldnt have pleased Mrs Pocock the more by it »Well Mr Strether
« she murmured with vagueness yet with sharpness while her crimson spot
burned a trifle brighter and he was aware that this must be for the present the
limit of her response Madame de Vionnet had already however come to his aid
and Waymarsh as if for further participation moved again back to them It was
true that the aid rendered by Madame de Vionnet was questionable it was a sign
that for all one might confess to with her and for all she might complain of
not enjoying she could still insidiously show how much of the material of
conversation had accumulated between them
»The real truth is you know that you sacrifice one without mercy to dear
old Maria She leaves no room in your life for anybody else Do you know« she
enquired of Mrs Pocock »about dear old Maria The worst is that Miss Gostrey
is really a wonderful woman«
»Oh yes indeed« Strether answered for her »Mrs Pocock knows about Miss
Gostrey Your mother Sarah must have told you about her your mother knows
everything« he sturdily pursued »And I cordially admit« he added with his
conscious gaiety of courage »that shes as wonderful a woman as you like«
»Ah it isnt I who like dear Mr Strether anything to do with the
matter« Sarah Pocock promptly protested »and Im by no means sure I have
from my mother or from any one else a notion of whom youre talking about«
»Well he wont let you see her you know« Madame de Vionnet
sympathetically threw in »He never lets me old friends as we are I mean as I
am with Maria He reserves her for his best hours keeps her consummately to
himself only gives us others the crumbs of the feast«
»Well Countess Ive had some of the crumbs« Waymarsh observed with weight
and covering her with his large look which led her to break in before he could
go on
»Comment donc he shares her with you« she exclaimed in droll stupefaction
»Take care you dont have before you go much further rather more of all ces
dames than you may know what to do with«
But he only continued in his massive way »I can post you about the lady
Mrs Pocock so far as you may care to hear Ive seen her quite a number of
times and I was practically present when they made acquaintance Ive kept my
eye on her right along but I dont know as theres any real harm in her«
»Harm« Madame de Vionnet quickly echoed »Why shes the dearest and
cleverest of all the clever and dear«
»Well you run her pretty close Countess« Waymarsh returned with spirit
»though theres no doubt shes pretty well up in things She knows her way round
Europe Above all theres no doubt she does love Strether«
»Ah but we all do that we all love Strether it isnt a merit« their
fellow visitor laughed keeping to her idea with a good conscience at which our
friend was aware that he marvelled though he trusted also for it as he met her
exquisitely expressive eyes to some later light
The prime effect of her tone however and it was a truth which his own
eyes gave back to her in sad ironic play could only to be make him feel that
to say such things to a man in public a woman must practically think of him as
ninety years old He had turned awkwardly responsively red he knew at her
mention of Maria Gostrey Sarah Pococks presence the particular quality of it
had made this inevitable and then he had grown still redder in proportion as
he hated to have shown anything at all He felt indeed that he was showing much
as uncomfortably and almost in pain he offered up his redness to Waymarsh
who strangely enough seemed now to be looking at him with a certain
explanatory yearning Something deep something built on their old old relation
passed in this complexity between them he got the sidewind of a loyalty
that stood behind all actual queer questions Waymarshs dry bare humour as it
gave itself to be taken gloomed out to demand justice »Well if you talk of
Miss Barrace Ive my chance too« it appeared stiffly to nod and it granted
that it was giving him away but struggled to add that it did so only to save
him The sombre glow stared it at him till it fairly sounded out »to save you
poor old man to save you to save you in spite of yourself« Yet it was somehow
just this communication that showed him to himself as more than ever lost Still
another result of it was to put before him as never yet that between his comrade
and the interest represented by Sarah there was already a basis Beyond all
question now yes Waymarsh had been in occult relation with Mrs Newsome out
out it all came in the very effort of his face »Yes youre feeling my hand«
he as good as proclaimed it »but only because this at least I shall have got
out of the damned Old World that I shall have picked up the pieces into which
it has caused you to crumble« It was as if in short after an instant Strether
had not only had it from him but had recognised that so far as this went the
instant had cleared the air Our friend understood and approved he had the
sense that they wouldnt otherwise speak of it This would be all and it would
mark in himself a kind of intelligent generosity It was with grim Sarah then
Sarah grim for all her grace that Waymarsh had begun at ten oclock in the
morning to save him Well if he could poor dear man with his big bleak
kindness The upshot of which crowded perception was that Strether on his own
side still showed no more than he absolutely had to He showed the least
possible by saying to Mrs Pocock after an interval much briefer than our glance
at the picture reflected in him »Oh its as true as they please Theres no
Miss Gostrey for any one but me not the least little peep I keep her to
myself«
»Well its very good of you to notify me« Sarah replied without looking at
him and thrown for a moment by this discrimination as the direction of her eyes
showed upon a dimly desperate little community with Madame de Vionnet »But I
hope I shant miss her too much«
Madame de Vionnet instantly rallied »And you know though it might occur
to one it isnt in the least that hes ashamed of her Shes really in a way
extremely goodlooking«
»Ah but extremely« Strether laughed while he wondered at the odd part he
found thus imposed on him
It continued to be so by every touch from Madame de Vionnet »Well as I
say you know I wish you would keep me a little more to yourself Couldnt you
name some day for me some hour and better soon than late Ill be at home
whenever it best suits you There I cant say fairer«
Strether thought a moment while Waymarsh and Mrs Pocock affected him as
standing attentive »I did lately call on you Last week while Chad was out of
town«
»Yes and I was away as it happened too You choose your moments well
But dont wait for my next absence for I shant make another« Madame de
Vionnet declared »while Mrs Pococks here«
»That vow neednt keep you long fortunately« Sarah observed with
reasserted suavity »I shall be at present but a short time in Paris I have my
plans for other countries I meet a number of charming friends« and her voice
seemed to caress that description of these persons
»Ah then« her visitor cheerfully replied »all the more reason Tomorrow
for instance or next day« she continued to Strether »Tuesday would do for me
beautifully«
»Tuesday then with pleasure«
»And at halfpast five or at six«
It was ridiculous but Mrs Pocock and Waymarsh struck him as fairly waiting
for his answer It was indeed as if they were arranged gathered for a
performance the performance of »Europe« by his confederate and himself Well
the performance could only go on »Say five fortyfive«
»Five fortyfive good« And now at last Madame de Vionnet must leave them
though it carried for herself the performance a little further »I did hope so
much also to see Miss Pocock Maynt I still«
Sarah hesitated but she rose equal »Shell return your visit with me
Shes at present out with Mr Pocock and my brother«
»I see of course Mr Newsome has everything to show them He has told me
so much about her My great desires to give my daughter the opportunity of
making her acquaintance Im always on the lookout for such chances for her If
I didnt bring her today it was only to make sure first that youd let me«
After which the charming woman risked a more intense appeal »It wouldnt suit
you also to mention some near time so that we shall be sure not to lose you«
Strether on his side waited for Sarah likewise had after all to perform and
it occupied him to have been thus reminded that she had stayed at home and on
her first morning of Paris while Chad led the others forth Oh she was up to
her eyes if she had stayed at home she had stayed by an understanding arrived
at the evening before that Waymarsh would come and find her alone This was
beginning well for a first day in Paris and the thing might be amusing yet
But Madame de Vionnets earnestness was meanwhile beautiful »You may think me
indiscreet but Ive such a desire my Jeanne shall know an American girl of the
really delightful kind You see I throw myself for it on your charity«
The manner of this speech gave Strether such a sense of depths below it and
behind it as he hadnt yet had ministered in a way that almost frightened him
to his dim divinations of reasons but if Sarah still in spite of it faltered
this was why he had time for a sign of sympathy with her petitioner »Let me say
then dear lady to back your plea that Miss Mamie is of the most delightful
kind of all is charming among the charming«
Even Waymarsh though with more to produce on the subject could get into
motion in time »Yes Countess the American girls a thing that your country
must at least allow ours the privilege to say we can show you But her full
beauty is only for those who know how to make use of her«
»Ah then« smiled Madame de Vionnet »thats exactly what I want to do Im
sure she has much to teach us«
It was wonderful but what was scarce less so was that Strether found
himself by the quick effect of it moved another way »Oh that may be But
dont speak of your own exquisite daughter you know as if she werent pure
perfection I at least wont take that from you Mademoiselle de Vionnet« he
explained in considerable form to Mrs Pocock »is pure perfection
Mademoiselle de Vionnet is exquisite«
It had been perhaps a little portentous but »Ah« Sarah simply glittered
Waymarsh himself for that matter apparently recognised in respect to the
facts the need of a larger justice and he had with it an inclination to Sarah
»Miss Janes strikingly handsome in the regular French style«
It somehow made both Strether and Madame de Vionnet laugh out though at the
very moment he caught in Sarahs eyes as glancing at the speaker a vague but
unmistakeable »You too« It made Waymarsh in fact look consciously over her
head Madame de Vionnet meanwhile however made her point in her own way »I
wish indeed I could offer you my poor child as a dazzling attraction it would
make ones position simple enough Shes as good as she can be but of course
shes different and the question is now in the light of the way things seem
to go if she isnt after all too different too different I mean from the
splendid type every one is so agreed that your wonderful country produces On
the other hand of course Mr Newsome who knows it so well has as a good
friend dear kind man that he is done everything he can to keep us from fatal
benightedness for my small shy creature Well« she wound up after Mrs Pocock
had signified in a murmur still a little stiff that she would speak to her own
young charge on the question »well we shall sit my child and I and wait and
wait and wait for you« But her last fine turn was for Strether »Do speak of us
in such a way «
»As that something cant but come of it Oh something shall come of it I
take a great interest« he further declared and in proof of it the next
moment he had gone with her down to her carriage
Book Ninth
I
»The difficulty is« Strether said to Madame de Vionnet a couple of days later
»that I cant surprise them into the smallest sign of his not being the same old
Chad theyve been for the last three years glowering at across the sea They
simply wont give any and as a policy you know what you call a parti pris a
deep game thats positively remarkable«
It was so remarkable that our friend had pulled up before his hostess with
the vision of it he had risen from his chair at the end of ten minutes and
begun as a help not to worry to move about before her quite as he moved before
Maria He had kept his appointment with her to the minute and had been intensely
impatient though divided in truth between the sense of having everything to
tell her and the sense of having nothing at all The short interval had in the
face of their complication multiplied his impressions it being meanwhile to
be noted moreover that he already frankly already almost publicly viewed the
complication as common to them If Madame de Vionnet under Sarahs eyes had
pulled him into her boat there was by this time no doubt whatever that he had
remained in it and that what he had really most been conscious of for many hours
together was the movement of the vessel itself They were in it together this
moment as they hadnt yet been and he hadnt at present uttered the least of
the words of alarm or remonstrance that had died on his lips at the hotel He
had other things to say to her than that she had put him in a position so
quickly had his position grown to affect him as quite excitingly altogether
richly inevitable That the outlook however given the point of exposure
hadnt cleared up half so much as he had reckoned was the first warning she
received from him on his arrival She had replied with indulgence that he was in
too great a hurry and had remarked soothingly that if she knew how to be
patient surely he might be He felt her presence on the spot he felt her tone
and everything about her as an aid to that effort and it was perhaps one of
the proofs of her success with him that he seemed so much to take his ease while
they talked By the time he had explained to her why his impressions though
multiplied still baffled him it was as if he had been familiarly talking for
hours They baffled him because Sarah well Sarah was deep deeper than she
had ever yet had a chance to show herself He didnt say that this was partly
the effect of her opening so straight down as it were into her mother and
that given Mrs Newsomes profundity the shaft thus sunk might well have a
reach but he wasnt without a resigned apprehension that at such a rate of
confidence between the two women he was likely soon to be moved to show how
already at moments it had been for him as if he were dealing directly with
Mrs Newsome Sarah to a certainty would have begun herself to feel it in him
and this naturally put it in her power to torment him the more From the
moment she knew he could be tormented
»But why can you be« his companion was surprised at his use of the word
»Because Im made so I think of everything«
»Ah one must never do that« she smiled »One must think of as few things as
possible«
»Then« he answered »one must pick them out right But all I mean is for
I express myself with violence that shes in a position to watch me Theres
an element of suspense for me and she can see me wriggle But my wriggling
doesnt matter« he pursued »I can bear it Besides I shall wriggle out«
The picture at any rate stirred in her an appreciation that he felt to be
sincere »I dont see how a man can be kinder to a woman than you are to me«
Well kind was what he wanted to be yet even while her charming eyes rested
on him with the truth of this he none the less had his humour of honesty »When
I say suspense I mean you know« he laughed »suspense about my own case too«
»Oh yes about your own case too« It diminished his magnanimity but she
only looked at him the more tenderly
»Not however« he went on »that I want to talk to you about that Its my
own little affair and I mentioned it simply as part of Mrs Pococks
advantage« No no though there was a queer present temptation in it and his
suspense was so real that to fidget was a relief he wouldnt talk to her about
Mrs Newsome wouldnt work off on her the anxiety produced in him by Sarahs
calculated omissions of reference The effect she produced of representing her
mother had been produced and that was just the immense the uncanny part of it
without her having so much as mentioned that lady She had brought no message
had alluded to no question had only answered his enquiries with hopeless
limited propriety She had invented a way of meeting them as if he had been a
polite perfunctory poor relation of distant degree that made them almost
ridiculous in him He couldnt moreover on his own side ask much without
appearing to publish how he had lately lacked news a circumstance of which it
was Sarahs profound policy not to betray a suspicion These things all the
same he wouldnt breathe to Madame de Vionnet much as they might make him
walk up and down And what he didnt say as well as what she didnt for she
had also her high decencies enhanced the effect of his being there with her at
the end of ten minutes more intimately on the basis of saving her than he had
yet had occasion to be It ended in fact by being quite beautiful between them
the number of things they had a manifest consciousness of not saying He would
have liked to turn her critically to the subject of Mrs Pocock but he so
stuck to the line he felt to be the point of honour and of delicacy that he
scarce even asked her what her personal impression had been He knew it for
that matter without putting her to trouble that she wondered how with such
elements Sarah could still have no charm was one of the principal things she
held her tongue about Strether would have been interested in her estimate of
the elements indubitably there some of them and to be appraised according to
taste but he denied himself even the luxury of this diversion The way Madame
de Vionnet affected him today was in itself a kind of demonstration of the
happy employment of gifts How could a woman think Sarah had charm who struck
one as having arrived at it herself by such different roads On the other hand
of course Sarah wasnt obliged to have it He felt as if somehow Madame de
Vionnet was The great question meanwhile was what Chad thought of his sister
which was naturally ushered in by that of Sarahs apprehension of Chad That
they could talk of and with a freedom purchased by their discretion in other
senses The difficulty however was that they were reduced as yet to conjecture
He had given them in the day or two as little of a lead as Sarah and Madame de
Vionnet mentioned that she hadnt seen him since his sisters arrival
»And does that strike you as such an age«
She met it in all honesty »Oh I wont pretend I dont miss him Sometimes I
see him every day Our friendships like that Make what you will of it« she
whimsically smiled a little flicker of the kind occasional in her that had
more than once moved him to wonder what he might best make of her »But hes
perfectly right« she hastened to add »and I wouldnt have him fail in any way
at present for the world Id sooner not see him for three months I begged him
to be beautiful to them and he fully feels it for himself«
Strether turned away under his quick perception she was so odd a mixture of
lucidity and mystery She fell in at moments with the theory about her he most
cherished and she seemed at others to blow it into air She spoke now as if her
art were all an innocence and then again as if her innocence were all an art
»Oh hes giving himself up and hell do so to the end How can he but want now
that its within reach his full impression which is much more important you
know than either yours or mine But hes just soaking« Strether said as he
came back »hes going in conscientiously for a saturation Im bound to say he
is very good«
»Ah« she quietly replied »to whom do you say it« And then more quietly
still »Hes capable of anything«
Strether more than reaffirmed »Oh hes excellent I more and more like«
he insisted »to see him with them« though the oddity of this tone between them
grew sharper for him even while they spoke It placed the young man so before
them as the result of her interest and the product of her genius acknowledged
so her part in the phenomenon and made the phenomenon so rare that more than
ever yet he might have been on the very point of asking her for some more
detailed account of the whole business than he had yet received from her The
occasion almost forced upon him some question as to how she had managed and as
to the appearance such miracles presented from her own singularly close place of
survey The moment in fact however passed giving way to more present history
and he continued simply to mark his appreciation of the happy truth »Its a
tremendous comfort to feel how one can trust him« And then again while for a
little she said nothing as if after all to her trust there might be a special
limit »I mean for making a good show to them«
»Yes« she thoughtfully returned »but if they shut their eyes to it«
Strether for an instant had his own thought »Well perhaps that wont
matter«
»You mean because he probably do what they will wont like them«
»Oh do what they will They wont do much especially if Sarah hasnt
more well more than one has yet made out to give«
Madame de Vionnet weighed it »Ah she has all her grace« It was a statement
over which for a little they could look at each other sufficiently straight
and though it produced no protest from Strether the effect was somehow as if he
had treated it as a joke »She may be persuasive and caressing with him she may
be eloquent beyond words She may get hold of him« she wound up »well as
neither you nor I have«
»Yes she may« and now Strether smiled »But he has spent all his time
each day with Jim Hes still showing Jim round«
She visibly wondered »Then how about Jim«
Strether took a turn before he answered »Hasnt he given you Jim Hasnt he
before this done him for you« He was a little at a loss »Doesnt he tell you
things«
She hesitated »No« and their eyes once more gave and took »Not as you
do You somehow make me see them or at least feel them And I havent asked
too much« she added »Ive of late wanted so not to worry him«
»Ah for that so have I« he said with encouraging assent so that as if
she had answered everything they were briefly sociable on it It threw him
back on his other thought with which he took another turn stopping again
however presently with something of a glow »You see Jims really immense I
think it will be Jim wholl do it«
She wondered »Get hold of him«
»No just the other thing Counteract Sarahs spell« And he showed now
our friend how far he had worked it out »Jims intensely cynical«
»Oh dear Jim« Madame de Vionnet vaguely smiled
»Yes literally dear Jim Hes awful What he wants heaven forgive him
is to help us«
»You mean« she was eager »help me«
»Well Chad and me in the first place But he throws you in too though
without as yet seeing you much Only so far as he does see you if you dont
mind he sees you as awful«
»Awful« she wanted it all
»A regular bad one though of course of a tremendously superior kind
Dreadful delightful irresistible«
»Ah dear Jim I should like to know him I must«
»Yes naturally But will it do You may you know« Strether suggested
»disappoint him«
She was droll and humble about it »I can but try But my wickedness then«
she went on »is my recommendation for him«
»Your wickedness and the charms with which in such a degree as yours he
associates it He understands you see that Chad and I have above all wanted to
have a good time and his view is simple and sharp Nothing will persuade him
in the light that is of my behaviour that I really didnt quite as much as
Chad come over to have one before it was too late He wouldnt have expected it
of me but men of my age at Woollett and especially the least likely ones
have been noted as liable to strange outbreaks belated uncanny clutches at the
unusual the ideal Its an effect that a lifetime of Woollett has quite been
observed as having and I thus give it to you in Jims view for what its
worth Now his wife and his motherinlaw« Strether continued to explain
»have as in honour bound no patience with such phenomena late or early
which puts Jim as against his relatives on the other side Besides« he added
»I dont think he really wants Chad back If Chad doesnt come «
»Hell have« Madame de Vionnet quite apprehended »more of the free
hand«
»Well Chads the bigger man«
»So hell work now en dessous to keep him quiet«
»No he wont work at all and he wont do anything en dessous Hes very
decent and wont be a traitor in the camp But hell be amused with his own
little view of our duplicity hell sniff up what he supposes to be Paris from
morning till night and hell be as to the rest for Chad well just what he
is«
She thought it over »A warning«
He met it almost with glee »You are as wonderful as everybody says« And
then to explain all he meant »I drove him about for his first hour and do you
know what all beautifully unconscious he most put before me Why that
something like that is at bottom as an improvement to his present state as in
fact the real redemption of it what they think it may not be too late to make
of our friend« With which as taking it in she seemed in her recurrent
alarm bravely to gaze at the possibility he completed his statement »But it
is too late Thanks to you«
It drew from her again one of her indefinite reflexions »Oh me after
all«
He stood before her so exhilarated by his demonstration that he could fairly
be jocular »Everythings comparative Youre better than that«
»You« she could but answer him »are better than anything« But she had
another thought »Will Mrs Pocock come to me«
»Oh yes shell do that As soon that is as my friend Waymarsh her
friend now leaves her leisure«
She showed an interest »Is he so much her friend as that«
»Why didnt you see it all at the hotel«
»Oh« she was amused »all is a good deal to say I dont know I forget
I lost myself in her«
»You were splendid« Strether returned »but all isnt a good deal to say
its only a little Yet its charming so far as it goes She wants a man to
herself«
»And hasnt she got you«
»Do you think she looked at me or even at you as if she had« Strether
easily dismissed that irony »Every one you see must strike her as having
somebody Youve got Chad and Chad has got you«
»I see« she made of it what she could »And youve got Maria«
Well he on his side accepted that »Ive got Maria And Maria has got me
So it goes«
»But Mr Jim whom has he got«
»Oh he has got or its as if he had the whole place«
»But for Mr Waymarsh« she recalled »isnt Miss Barrace before any one
else«
He shook his head »Miss Barrace is a raffinée and her amusement wont lose
by Mrs Pocock It will gain rather especially if Sarah triumphs and she comes
in for a view of it«
»How well you know us« Madame de Vionnet at this frankly sighed
»No it seems to me its we that I know I know Sarah its perhaps on
that ground only that my feet are firm Waymarsh will take her round while Chad
takes Jim and I shall be I assure you delighted for both of them Sarah will
have had what she requires she will have paid her tribute to the ideal and he
will have done about the same In Paris its in the air so what can one do
less If theres a point that beyond any other Sarah wants to make its that
she didnt come out to be narrow We shall feel at least that«
»Oh« she sighed »the quantity we seem likely to feel But what becomes in
these conditions of the girl«
»Of Mamie if were all provided Ah for that« said Strether »you can
trust Chad«
»To be you mean all right to her«
»To pay her every attention as soon as he has polished off Jim He wants
what Jim can give him and what Jim really wont though he has had it all
and more than all from me He wants in short his own personal impression and
hell get it strong But as soon as he has got it Mamie wont suffer«
»Oh Mamie mustnt suffer« Madame de Vionnet soothingly emphasised
But Strether could reassure her »Dont fear As soon as he has done with
Jim Jim will fall to me And then youll see«
It was as if in a moment she saw already yet she still waited Then »Is she
really quite charming« she asked
He had got up with his last words and gathered in his hat and gloves »I
dont know Im watching Im studying the case as it were and I dare say I
shall be able to tell you«
She wondered »Is it a case«
»Yes I think so At any rate I shall see«
»But havent you known her before«
»Yes« he smiled »but somehow at home she wasnt a case She has become
one since« It was as if he made it out for himself »She has become one here«
»So very very soon«
He measured it laughing »Not sooner than I did«
»And you became one «
»Very very soon The day I arrived«
Her intelligent eyes showed her thought of it »Ah but the day you arrived
you met Maria Whom has Miss Pocock met«
He paused again but he brought it out »Hasnt she met Chad«
»Certainly but not for the first time Hes an old friend« At which
Strether had a slow amused significant headshake that made her go on »You mean
that for her at least hes a new person that she sees him as different«
»She sees him as different«
»And how does she see him«
Strether gave it up »How can one tell how a deep little girl sees a deep
young man«
»Is every one so deep Is she too«
»So it strikes me deeper than I thought But wait a little between us
well make it out Youll judge for that matter yourself«
Madame de Vionnet looked for the moment fairly bent on the chance »Then she
will come with her I mean Mamie with Mrs Pocock«
»Certainly Her curiosity if nothing else will in any case work that But
leave it all to Chad«
»Ah« wailed Madame de Vionnet turning away a little wearily »the things I
leave to Chad«
The tone of it made him look at her with a kindness that showed his vision
of her suspense But he fell back on his confidence »Oh well trust him Trust
him all the way« He had indeed no sooner so spoken than the queer displacement
of his point of view appeared again to come up for him in the very sound which
drew from him a short laugh immediately checked He became still more advisory
»When they do come give them plenty of Miss Jeanne Let Mamie see her well«
She looked for a moment as if she placed them face to face »For Mamie to
hate her«
He had another of his corrective headshakes »Mamie wont Trust them«
She looked at him hard and then as if it were what she must always come
back to »Its you I trust But I was sincere« she said »at the hotel I did
I do want my child «
»Well« Strether waited with deference while she appeared to hesitate as
to how to put it
»Well to do what she can for me«
Strether for a little met her eyes on it after which something that might
have been unexpected to her came from him »Poor little duck«
Not more expected for himself indeed might well have been her echo of it
»Poor little duck But she immensely wants herself« she said »to see our
friends cousin«
»Is that what she thinks her«
»Its what we call the young lady«
He thought again then with a laugh »Well your daughter will help you«
And now at last he took leave of her as he had been intending for five
minutes But she went part of the way with him accompanying him out of the room
and into the next and the next Her noble old apartment offered a succession of
three the first two of which indeed on entering smaller than the last but
each with its faded and formal air enlarged the office of the antechamber and
enriched the sense of approach Strether fancied them liked them and passing
through them with her more slowly now met a sharp renewal of his original
impression He stopped he looked back the whole thing made a vista which he
found high melancholy and sweet full once more of dim historic shades of
the faint faraway cannonroar of the great Empire It was doubtless half the
projection of his mind but his mind was a thing that among old waxed parquets
pale shades of pink and green pseudoclassic candelabra he had always
needfully to reckon with They could easily make him irrelevant The oddity the
originality the poetry he didnt know what to call it of Chads connexion
reaffirmed for him its romantic side »They ought to see this you know They
must«
»The Pococks« she looked about in deprecation she seemed to see gaps he
didnt
»Mamie and Sarah Mamie in particular«
»My shabby old place But their things «
»Oh their things You were talking of what will do something for you «
»So that it strikes you« she broke in »that my poor place may Oh« she
ruefully mused »that would be desperate«
»Do you know what I wish« he went on »I wish Mrs Newsome herself could
have a look«
She stared missing a little his logic »It would make a difference«
Her tone was so earnest that as he continued to look about he laughed »It
might«
»But youve told her you tell me «
»All about you Yes a wonderful story But theres all the indescribable
what one gets only on the spot«
»Thank you« she charmingly and sadly smiled
»Its all about me here« he freely continued »Mrs Newsome feels things«
But she seemed doomed always to come back to doubt »No one feels so much as
you No not any one«
»So much the worse then for every one Its very easy«
They were by this time in the antechamber still alone together as she
hadnt rung for a servant The antechamber was high and square grave and
suggestive too a little cold and slippery even in summer and with a few old
prints that were precious Strether divined on the walls He stood in the
middle slightly lingering vaguely directing his glasses while leaning
against the doorpost of the room she gently pressed her cheek to the side of
the recess »You would have been a friend«
»I« it startled him a little
»For the reason you say Youre not stupid« And then abruptly as if
bringing it out were somehow founded on that fact »Were marrying Jeanne«
It affected him on the spot as a move in a game and he was even then not
without the sense that that wasnt the way Jeanne should be married But he
quickly showed his interest though as quickly afterwards struck him with an
absurd confusion of mind »You You and a not Chad« Of ourse it was the
childs father who made the we but to the childs father it would have cost
him an effort to allude Yet didnt it seem the next minute that Monsieur de
Vionnet was after all not in question since she had gone on to say that it
was indeed to Chad she referred and that he had been in the whole matter
kindness itself
»If I must tell you all it is he himself who has put us in the way I mean
in the way of an opportunity that so far as I can yet see is all I could
possibly have dreamed of For all the trouble Monsieur de Vionnet will ever
take« It was the first time she had spoken to him of her husband and he
couldnt have expressed how much more intimate with her it suddenly made him
feel It wasnt much in truth there were other things in what she was saying
that were far more but it was as if while they stood there together so easily
in these cold chambers of the past the single touch had shown the reach of her
confidence »But our friend« she asked »hasnt then told you«
»He has told me nothing«
»Well it has come with rather a rush all in a very few days and hasnt
moreover yet taken a form that permits an announcement Its only for you
absolutely you alone that I speak I so want you to know« The sense he had so
often had since the first hour of his disembarkment of being further and
further in treated him again at this moment to another twinge but in this
wonderful way of her putting him in there continued to be something exquisitely
remorseless »Monsieur de Vionnet will accept what he must accept He has
proposed half a dozen things each one more impossible than the other and he
wouldnt have found this if he lives to a hundred Chad found it« she continued
with her lighted faintly sflushed her conscious confidential face »in the
quietest way in the world Or rather it found him for everything finds him I
mean finds him right Youll think we do such things strangely but at my age«
she smiled »one has to accept ones conditions Our young mans people had seen
her one of his sisters a charming woman we know all about them had
observed her somewhere with me She had spoken to her brother turned him on
and we were again observed poor Jeanne and I without our in the least knowing
it It was at the beginning of the winter it went on for some time it
outlasted our absence it began again on our return and it luckily seems all
right The young man had met Chad and he got a friend to approach him as
having a decent interest in us Mr Newsome looked well before he leaped he
kept beautifully quiet and satisfied himself fully then only he spoke Its
what has for some time past occupied us It seems as if it were what would do
really really all one could wish There are only two or three points to be
settled they depend on her father But this time I think were safe«
Strether consciously gaping a little had fairly hung upon her lips »I
hope so with all my heart« And then he permitted himself »Does nothing depend
on her«
»Ah naturally everything did But shes pleased comme tout She has been
perfectly free and he our young friend is really a combination I quite
adore him«
Strether just made sure »You mean your future soninlaw«
»Future if we all bring it off«
»Ah well« said Strether decorously »I heartily hope you may« There seemed
little else for him to say though her communication had the oddest effect on
him Vaguely and confusedly he was troubled by it feeling as if he had even
himself been concerned in something deep and dim He had allowed for depths but
these were greater and it was as if oppressively indeed absurdly he was
responsible for what they had now thrown up to the surface It was through
something ancient and cold in it what he would have called the real thing In
short his hostesss news though he couldnt have explained why was a sensible
shock and his oppression a weight he felt he must somehow or other immediately
get rid of There were too many connexions missing to make it tolerable he
should do anything else He was prepared to suffer before his own inner
tribunal for Chad he was prepared to suffer even for Madame de Vionnet But
he wasnt prepared to suffer for the little girl So now having said the proper
thing he wanted to get away She held him an instant however with another
appeal
»Do I seem to you very awful«
»Awful Why so« But he called it to himself even as he spoke his biggest
insincerity yet
»Our arrangements are so different from yours«
»Mine« Oh he could dismiss that too »I havent any arrangements«
»Then you must accept mine all the more that theyre excellent Theyre
founded on a vieille sagesse There will be much more if all goes well for you
to hear and to know and everything believe me for you to like Dont be
afraid youll be satisfied« Thus she could talk to him of what of her
innermost life for that was what it came to he must accept thus she could
extraordinarily speak as if in such an affair his being satisfied had an
importance It was all a wonder and made the whole case larger He had struck
himself at the hotel before Sarah and Waymarsh as being in her boat but where
on earth was he now This question was in the air till her own lips quenched it
with another »And do you suppose he who loves her so would do anything
reckless or cruel«
He wondered what he supposed »Do you mean your young man «
»I mean yours I mean Mr Newsome« It flashed for Strether the next moment
a finer light and the light deepened as she went on »He takes thank God the
truest tenderest interest in her«
It deepened indeed »Oh Im sure of that«
»You were talking« she said »about ones trusting him You see then how I
do«
He waited a moment it all came »I see I see« He felt he really did
see
»He wouldnt hurt her for the world nor assuming she marries at all
risk anything that might make against her happiness And willingly at least
he would never hurt me«
Her face with what he had by this time grasped told him more than her
words whether something had come into it or whether he only read clearer her
whole story what at least he then took for such reached out to him from it
With the initiative she now attributed to Chad it all made a sense and this
sense a light a lead was what had abruptly risen before him He wanted once
more to get off with these things which was at last made easy a servant
having for his assistance on hearing voices in the hall just come forward
All that Strether had made out was while the man opened the door and
impersonally waited summed up in his last word »I dont think you know Chad
will tell me anything«
»No perhaps not yet«
»And I wont as yet speak to him«
»Ah thats as youll think best You must judge«
She had finally given him her hand which he held a moment »How much I have
to judge«
»Everything« said Madame de Vionnet a remark that was indeed with the
refined disguised suppressed passion of her face what he most carried away
II
So far as a direct approach was concerned Sarah had neglected him for the week
now about to end with a civil consistency of chill that giving him a higher
idea of her social resource threw him back on the general reflexion that a
woman could always be amazing It indeed helped a little to console him that he
felt sure she had for the same period also left Chads curiosity hanging though
on the other hand for his personal relief Chad could at least go through the
various motions and he made them extraordinarily numerous of seeing she had
a good time There wasnt a motion on which in her presence poor Strether
could so much as venture and all he could do when he was out of it was to walk
over for a talk with Maria He walked over of course much less than usual but
he found a special compensation in a certain halfhour during which toward the
close of a crowded empty expensive day his several companions seemed to him so
disposed of as to give his forms and usages a rest He had been with them in the
morning and had nevertheless called on the Pococks in the afternoon but their
whole group he then found had dispersed after a fashion of which it would
amuse Miss Gostrey to hear He was sorry again gratefully sorry she was so out
of it she who had really put him in but she had fortunately always her
appetite for news The pure flame of the disinterested burned in her cave of
treasures as a lamp in a Byzantine vault It was just now as happened that for
so fine a sense as hers a near view would have begun to pay Within three days
precisely the situation on which he was to report had shown signs of an
equilibrium the effect of his look in at the hotel was to confirm this
appearance If the equilibrium might only prevail Sarah was out with Waymarsh
Mamie was out with Chad and Jim was out alone Later on indeed he himself was
booked to Jim was to take him that evening to the Varieties which Strether
was careful to pronounce as Jim pronounced them
Miss Gostrey drank it in »What then tonight do the others do«
»Well it has been arranged Waymarsh takes Sarah to dine at Bignons«
She wondered »And what do they do after They cant come straight home«
»No they cant come straight home at least Sarah cant Its their
secret but I think Ive guessed it« Then as she waited »The circus«
It made her stare a moment longer then laugh almost to extravagance
»Theres no one like you«
»Like me« he only wanted to understand
»Like all of you together like all of us Woollett Milrose and their
products Were abysmal but may we never be less so Mr Newsome« she
continued »meanwhile takes Miss Pocock «
»Precisely to the Francais to see what you took Waymarsh and me to a
familybill«
»Ah then may Mr Chad enjoy it as I did« But she saw so much in things »Do
they spend their evenings your young people like that alone together«
»Well theyre young people but theyre old friends«
»I see I see And do they dine for a difference at Brébants«
»Oh where they dine is their secret too But Ive my idea that it will be
very quietly at Chads own place«
»Shell come to him there alone«
They looked at each other a moment »He has known her from a child
Besides« said Strether with emphasis »Mamies remarkable Shes splendid«
She wondered »Do you mean she expects to bring it off«
»Getting hold of him No I think not«
»She doesnt want him enough or doesnt believe in her power« On which
as he said nothing she continued »She finds she doesnt care for him«
»No I think she finds she does But thats what I mean by so describing
her Its if she does that shes splendid But well see« he wound up »where
she comes out«
»You seem to show me sufficiently« Miss Gostrey laughed »where she goes
in But is her childhoods friend« she asked »permitting himself recklessly to
flirt with her«
»No not that Chads also splendid Theyre all splendid« he declared
with a sudden strange sound of wistfulness and envy »Theyre at least happy«
»Happy« it appeared with their various difficulties to surprise her
»Well I seem to myself among them the only one who isnt«
She demurred »With your constant tribute to the ideal«
He had a laugh at his tribute to the ideal but he explained after a moment
his impression »I mean theyre living Theyre rushing about Ive already had
my rushing Im waiting«
»But arent you« she asked by way of cheer »waiting with me«
He looked at her in all kindness »Yes if it werent for that«
»And you help me to wait« she said »However« she went on »Ive really
something for you that will help you to wait and which you shall have in a
minute Only theres something more I want from you first I revel in Sarah«
»So do I If it werent« he again amusedly sighed »for that «
»Well you owe more to women than any man I ever saw We do seem to keep you
going Yet Sarah as I see her must be great«
»She is« Strether fully assented »great Whatever happens she wont
with these unforgettable days have lived in vain«
Miss Gostrey had a pause »You mean she has fallen in love«
»I mean she wonders if she hasnt and it serves all her purpose«
»It has indeed« Maria laughed »served womens purposes before«
»Yes for giving in But I doubt if the idea as an idea has ever up to
now answered so well for holding out Thats her tribute to the ideal we each
have our own Its her romance and it seems to me better on the whole than
mine To have it in Paris too« he explained »on this classic ground in this
charged infectious air with so sudden an intensity well its more than she
expected She has had in short to recognise the breaking out for her of a real
affinity and with everything to enhance the drama«
Miss Gostrey followed »Jim for instance«
»Jim Jim hugely enhances Jim was made to enhance And then Mrs Waymarsh
Its the crowning touch it supplies the colour Hes positively separated«
»And she herself unfortunately isnt that supplies the colour too« Miss
Gostrey was all there But somehow »Is he in love«
Strether looked at her a long time then looked all about the room then
came a little nearer »Will you never tell any one in the world as long as ever
you live«
»Never« It was charming
»He thinks Sarah really is But he has no fear« Strether hastened to add
»Of her being affected by it«
»Of his being He likes it but he knows she can hold out Hes helping her
hes floating her over by kindness«
Maria rather funnily considered it »Floating her over in champagne The
kindness of dining her nose to nose at the hour when all Paris is crowding to
profane delights and in the well in the great temple as one hears of it of
pleasure«
»Thats just it for both of them« Strether insisted »and all of a
supreme innocence The Parisian place the feverish hour the putting before her
of a hundred francs worth of food and drink which theyll scarcely touch all
thats the dear mans own romance the expensive kind expensive in francs and
centimes in which he abounds And the circus afterwards which is cheaper but
which hell find some means of making as dear as possible thats also his
tribute to the ideal It does for him Hell see her through They wont talk of
anything worse than you and me«
»Well were bad enough perhaps thank heaven« she laughed »to upset them
Mr Waymarsh at any rate is a hideous old coquette« And the next moment she had
dropped everything for a different pursuit »What you dont appear to know is
that Jeanne de Vionnet has become engaged Shes to arry it has been
definitely arranged young Monsieur de Montbron«
He fairly blushed »Then if you know it its out«
»Dont I often know things that are not out However« she said »this will
be out tomorrow But I see Ive counted too much on your possible ignorance
Youve been before me and I dont make you jump as I hoped«
He gave a gasp at her insight »You never fail Ive had my jump I had it
when I first heard«
»Then if you knew why didnt you tell me as soon as you came in«
»Because I had it from her as a thing not yet to be spoken of«
Miss Gostrey wondered »From Madame de Vionnet herself«
»As a probability not quite a certainty a good cause in which Chad has
been working So Ive waited«
»You need wait no longer« she returned »It reached me yesterday
roundabout and accidental but by a person who had had it from one of the young
mans own people as a thing quite settled I was only keeping it for you«
»You thought Chad wouldnt have told me«
She hesitated »Well if he hasnt «
»He hasnt And yet the thing appears to have been practically his doing So
there we are«
»There we are« Maria candidly echoed
»Thats why I jumped I jumped« he continued to explain »because it means
this disposition of the daughter that theres now nothing else nothing else
but him and the mother«
»Still it simplifies«
»It simplifies« he fully concurred »But thats precisely where we are It
marks a stage in his relation The act is his answer to Mrs Newsomes
demonstration«
»It tells« Maria asked »the worst«
»The worst«
»But is the worst what he wants Sarah to know«
»He doesnt care for Sarah«
At which Miss Gostreys eyebrows went up »You mean she has already dished
herself«
Strether took a turn about he had thought it out again and again before
this to the end but the vista seemed each time longer »He wants his good
friend to know the best I mean the measure of his attachment She asked for a
sign and he thought of that one There it is«
»A concession to her jealousy«
Strether pulled up »Yes call it that Make it lurid for that makes my
problem richer«
»Certainly let us have it lurid for I quite agree with you that we want
none of our problems poor But let us also have it clear Can he in the midst
of such a preoccupation or on the heels of it have seriously cared for Jeanne
cared I mean as a young man at liberty would have cared«
Well Strether had mastered it »I think he can have thought it would be
charming if he could care It would be nicer«
»Nicer than being tied up to Marie«
»Yes than the discomfort of an attachment to a person he can never hope
short of a catastrophe to marry And he was quite right« said Strether »It
would certainly have been nicer Even when a things already nice there mostly
is some other thing that would have been nicer or as to which we wonder if it
wouldnt But his question was all the same a dream He couldnt care in that
way He is tied up to Marie The relation is too special and has gone too far
Its the very basis and his recent lively contribution toward establishing
Jeanne in life has been his definite and final acknowledgement to Madame de
Vionnet that he has ceased squirming I doubt meanwhile« he went on »if Sarah
has at all directly attacked him«
His companion brooded »But wont he wish for his own satisfaction to make
his ground good to her«
»No hell leave it to me hell leave everything to me I sort of feel«
he worked it out »that the whole thing will come upon me Yes I shall have
every inch and every ounce of it I shall be used for it « And Strether lost
himself in the prospect Then he fancifully expressed the issue »To the last
drop of my blood«
Maria however roundly protested »Ah youll please keep a drop for me I
shall have a use for it« which she didnt however follow up She had come
back the next moment to another matter »Mrs Pocock with her brother is
trusting only to her general charm«
»So it would seem«
»And the charms not working«
Well Strether put it otherwise »Shes sounding the note of home which is
the very best thing she can do«
»The best for Madame de Vionnet«
»The best for home itself The natural one the right one«
»Right« Maria asked »when it fails«
Strether had a pause »The difficultys Jim Jims the note of home«
She debated »Ah surely not the note of Mrs Newsome«
But he had it all »The note of the home for which Mrs Nesome wants him
the home of the business Jim stands with his little legs apart at the door of
that tent and Jim is frankly speaking extremely awful«
Maria stared »And you in you poor thing for your evening with him«
»Oh hes all right for me« Strether laughed »Any ones good enough for me
But Sarah shouldnt all the same have brought him She doesnt appreciate
him«
His friend was amused with this statement of it »Doesnt know you mean
how bad he is«
Strether shook his head with decision »Not really«
She wondered »Then doesnt Mrs Newsome«
It made him frankly do the same »Well no since you ask me«
Maria rubbed it in »Not really either«
»Not at all She rates him rather high« With which indeed immediately he
took himself up »Well he is good too in his way It depends on what you want
him for«
Miss Gostrey however wouldnt let it depend on anything wouldnt have
it and wouldnt want him at any price »It suits my book« she said »that he
should be impossible and it suits it still better« she more imaginately added
»that Mrs Newsome doesnt know he is«
Strether in consequence had to take it from her but he fell back on
something else »Ill tell you who does really know«
»Mr Waymarsh Never«
»Never indeed Im not always thinking of Mr Waymarsh in fact I find now I
never am« Then he mentioned the person as if there were a good deal in it
»Mamie«
»His own sister« Oddly enough it but let her down »What good will that
do«
»None perhaps But there as usual we are«
III
There they were yet again accordingly for two days more when Strether on
being at Mrs Pococks hotel ushered into that ladys salon found himself at
first assuming a mistake on the part of the servant who had introduced him and
retired The occupants hadnt come in for the room looked empty as only a room
can look in Paris of a fine afternoon when the faint murmur of the huge
collective life carried on out of doors strays among scattered objects even as
a summer air idles in a lonely garden Our friend looked about and hesitated
observed on the evidence of a table charged with purchases and other matters
that Sarah had become possessed by no aid from him of the last number of the
salmoncoloured Revue noted further that Mamie appeared to have received a
present of Fromentins »Maîtres dAutrefois« from Chad who had written her name
on the cover and pulled up at the sight of a heavy letter addressed in a hand
he knew This letter forwarded by a banker and arriving in Mrs Pococks
absence had been placed in evidence and it drew from the fact of its being
unopened a sudden queer power to intensify the reach of its author It brought
home to him the scale on which Mrs Newsome for she had been copious indeed
this time was writing to her daughter while she kept him in durance and it
had altogether such an effect upon him as made him for a few minutes stand still
and breathe low In his own room at his own hotel he had dozens of wellfilled
envelopes superscribed in that character and there was actually something in
the renewal of his interrupted vision of the character that played straight into
the so frequent question of whether he werent already disinherited beyond
appeal It was such an assurance as the sharp downstrokes of her pen hadnt yet
had occasion to give him but they somehow at the present crisis stood for a
probable absoluteness in any decree of the writer He looked at Sarahs name and
address in short as if he had been looking hard into her mothers face and
then turned from it as if the face had declined to relax But since it was in a
manner as if Mrs Newsome were thereby all the more instead of the less in the
room and were conscious sharply and sorely conscious of himself so he felt
both held and hushed summoned to stay at least and take his punishment By
staying accordingly he took it creeping softly and vaguely about and waiting
for Sarah to come in She would come in if he stayed long enough and he had now
more than ever the sense of her success in leaving him a prey to anxiety It
wasnt to be denied that she had had a happy instinct from the point of view of
Woollett in placing him thus at the mercy of her own initiative It was very
well to try to say he didnt care that she might break ground when she would
might never break it at all if she wouldnt and that he had no confession
whatever to wait upon her with he breathed from day to day an air that damnably
required clearing and there were moments when he quite ached to precipitate
that process He couldnt doubt that should she only oblige him by surprising
him just as he then was a clarifying scene of some sort would result from the
concussion
He humbly circulated in this spirit till he suddenly had a fresh arrest
Both the windows of the room stood open to the balcony but it was only now
that in the glass of the leaf of one of them folded back he caught a
reflexion quickly recognised as the colour of a ladys dress Somebody had been
then all the while on the balcony and the person whoever it might be was so
placed between the windows as to be hidden from him while on the other hand the
many sounds of the street had covered his own entrance and movements If the
person were Sarah he might on the spot therefore be served to his taste He
might lead her by a move or two up to the remedy for his vain tension as to
which should he get nothing else from it he would at least have the relief of
pulling down the roof on their heads There was fortunately no one at hand to
observe in respect to his valour that even on this completed reasoning he
still hung fire He had been waiting for Mrs Pocock and the sound of the
oracle but he had to gird himself afresh which he did in the embrasure of the
window neither advancing nor retreating before provoking the revelation It
was apparently for Sarah to come more into view he was in that case there at
her service She did however as meanwhile happened come more into view only
she luckily came at the last minute as a contradiction of Sarah The occupant of
the balcony was after all quite another person a person presented on a second
look by a charming back and a slight shift of her position as beautiful
brilliant unconscious Mamie Mamie alone at home Mamie passing her time in her
own innocent way Mamie in short rather shabbily used but Mamie absorbed
interested and interesting With her arms on the balustrade and her attention
dropped to the street she allowed Strether to watch her to consider several
things without her turning round
But the oddity was that when he had so watched and considered he simply
stepped back into the room without following up his advantage He revolved there
again for several minutes quite as with something new to think of and as if the
bearings of the possibility of Sarah had been superseded For frankly yes it
had bearings thus to find the girl in solitary possession There was something
in it that touched him to a point not to have been reckoned beforehand
something that softly but quite pressingly spoke to him and that spoke the more
each time he paused again at the edge of the balcony and saw her still unaware
Her companions were plainly scattered Sarah would be off somewhere with
Waymarsh and Chad off somewhere with Jim Strether didnt at all mentally impute
to Chad that he was with his good friend he gave him the benefit of supposing
him involved in appearances that had he had to describe them for instance to
Maria he would have conveniently qualified as more subtle It came to him
indeed the next thing that there was perhaps almost an excess of refinement in
having left Mamie in such weather up there alone however she might in fact have
extemporised under the charm of the Rue de Rivoli a little makeshift Paris of
wonder and fancy Our friend in any case now recognised and it was as if at
the recognition Mrs Newsomes fixed intensity had suddenly with a deep audible
gasp grown thin and vague that day after day he had been conscious in respect
to his young lady of something odd and ambiguous yet something into which he
could at last read a meaning It had been at the most this mystery an
obsession oh an obsession agreeable and it had just now fallen into its place
as at the touch of a spring It had represented the possibility between them of
some communication baffled by accident and delay the possibility even of some
relation as yet unacknowledged
There was always their old relation the fruit of the Woollett years but
that and it was what was strangest had nothing whatever in common with what
was now in the air As a child as a bud and then again as a flower of
expansion Mamie had bloomed for him freely in the almost incessantly open
doorways of home where he remembered her as first very forward as then very
backward for he had carried on at one period in Mrs Newsomes parlours oh
Mrs Newsomes phases and his own a course of English Literature reenforced
by exams and teas and once more finally as very much in advance But he had
kept no great sense of points of contact it not being in the nature of things
at Woollett that the freshest of the buds should find herself in the same basket
with the most withered of the winter apples The child had given sharpness
above all to his sense of the flight of time it was but the day before
yesterday that he had tripped up on her hoop yet his experience of remarkable
women destined it would seem remarkably to grow felt itself ready this
afternoon quite braced itself to include her She had in fine more to say to
him than he had ever dreamed the pretty girl of the moment could have and the
proof of the circumstance was that visibly unmistakeably she had been able to
say it to no one else It was something she could mention neither to her
brother to her sisterinlaw nor to Chad though he could just imagine that had
she still been at home she might have brought it out as a supreme tribute to
age authority and attitude for Mrs Newsome It was moreover something in
which they all took an interest the strength of their interest was in truth
just the reason of her prudence All this then for five minutes was vivid to
Strether and it put before him that poor child she had now but her prudence
to amuse her That for a pretty girl in Paris struck him with a rush as a
sorry state so that under the impression he went out to her with a step as
hypocritically alert he was well aware as if he had just come into the room
She turned with a start at his voice preoccupied with him though she might be
she was just a scrap disappointed »Oh I thought you were Mr Bilham«
The remark had been at first surprising and our friends private thought
under the influence of it temporarily blighted yet we are able to add that he
presently recovered his inward tone and that many a fresh flower of fancy was to
bloom in the same air Little Bilham since little Bilham was somewhat
incongruously expected appeared behindhand a circumstance by which Strether
was to profit They came back into the room together after a little the couple
on the balcony and amid its crimsonandgold elegance with the others still
absent Strether passed forty minutes that he appraised even at the time as far
in the whole queer connexion from his idlest Yes indeed since he had the
other day so agreed with Maria about the inspiration of the lurid here was
something for his problem that surely didnt make it shrink and that was floated
in upon him as part of a sudden flood He was doubtless not to know till
afterwards on turning them over in thought of how many elements his impression
was composed but he none the less felt as he sat with the charming girl the
signal growth of a confidence For she was charming when all was said and
none the less so for the visible habit and practice of freedom and fluency She
was charming he was aware in spite of the fact that if he hadnt found her so
he would have found her something he should have been in peril of expressing as
funny Yes she was funny wonderful Mamie and without dreaming it she was
bland she was bridal with never that he could make out as yet a bridegroom
to support it she was handsome and portly and easy and chatty soft and sweet
and almost disconcertingly reassuring She was dressed if we might so far
discriminate less as a young lady than as an old one had an old one been
supposable to Strether as so committed to vanity the complexities of her hair
missed moreover also the looseness of youth and she had a mature manner of
bending a little as to encourage and reward while she held neatly together in
front of her a pair of strikingly polished hands the combination of all of
which kept up about her the glamour of her receiving placed her again
perpetually between the windows and within sound of the icecream plates
suggested the enumeration of all the names all the Mr Brookses and Mr
Snookses gregarious specimens of a single type she was happy to meet
But if all this was where she was funny and if what was funnier than the
rest was the contrast between her beautiful benevolent patronage such a hint
of the polysyllabic as might make her something of a bore toward middle age
and her rather flat little voice the voice naturally unaffectedly yet of a
girl of fifteen so Strether none the less at the end of ten minutes felt in
her a quiet dignity that pulled things bravely together If quiet dignity
almost more than matronly with voluminous too voluminous clothes was the
effect she proposed to produce that was an ideal one could like in her when
once one had got into relation The great thing now for her visitor was that
this was exactly what he had done it made so extraordinary a mixture of the
brief and crowded hour It was the mark of a relation that he had begun so
quickly to find himself sure she was of all people as might have been said on
the side and of the party of Mrs Newsomes original ambassador She was in his
interest and not in Sarahs and some sign of that was precisely what he had
been feeling in her these last days as imminent Finally placed in Paris in
immediate presence of the situation and of the hero of it by whom Strether was
incapable of meaning any one but Chad she had accomplished and really in a
manner all unexpected to herself a change of base deep still things had come
to pass within her and by the time she had grown sure of them Strether had
become aware of the little drama When she knew where she was in short he had
made it out and he made it out at present still better though with never a
direct word passing between them all the while on the subject of his own
predicament There had been at first as he sat there with her a moment during
which he wondered if she meant to break ground in respect to his prime
undertaking That door stood so strangely ajar that he was halfprepared to be
conscious at any juncture of her having of any ones having quite bounced
in But friendly familiar light of touch and happy of tact she exquisitely
stayed out so that it was for all the world as if to show she could deal with
him without being reduced to well scarcely anything
It fully came up for them then by means of their talking of everything but
Chad that Mamie unlike Sarah unlike Jim knew perfectly what had become of
him It fully came up that she had taken to the last fraction of an inch the
measure of the change in him and that she wanted Strether to know what a secret
she proposed to make of it They talked most conveniently as if they had had
no chance yet about Woollett and that had virtually the effect of their
keeping the secret more close The hour took on for Strether little by little
a queer sad sweetness of quality he had such a revulsion in Mamies favour and
on behalf of her social value as might have come from remorse at some early
injustice She made him as under the breath of some vague western whiff
homesick and freshly restless he could really for the time have fancied himself
stranded with her on a far shore during an ominous calm in a quaint community
of shipwreck Their little interview was like a picnic on a coral strand they
passed each other with melancholy smiles and looks sufficiently allusive such
cupfuls of water as they had saved Especially sharp in Strether meanwhile was
the conviction that his companion really knew as we have hinted where she had
come out It was at a very particular place only that she would never tell
him it would be above all what he should have to puzzle for himself This was
what he hoped for because his interest in the girl wouldnt be complete without
it No more would the appreciation to which she was entitled so assured was he
that the more he saw of her process the more he should see of her pride She
saw herself everything but she knew what she didnt want and that it was
that had helped her What didnt she want there was a pleasure lost for her
old friend in not yet knowing as there would doubtless be a thrill in getting a
glimpse Gently and sociably she kept that dark to him and it was as if she
soothed and beguiled him in other ways to make up for it She came out with her
impression of Madame de Vionnet of whom she had heard so much she came out
with her impression of Jeanne whom she had been dying to see she brought it
out with a blandness by which her auditor was really stirred that she had been
with Sarah early that very afternoon and after dreadful delays caused by all
sorts of things mainly eternally by the purchase of clothes clothes that
unfortunately wouldnt be themselves eternal to call in the Rue de
Bellechasse
At the sound of these names Strether almost blushed to feel that he couldnt
have sounded them first and yet couldnt either have justified his
squeamishness Mamie made them easy as he couldnt have begun to do and yet it
could only have cost her more than he should ever have had to spend It was as
friends of Chads friends special distinguished desirable enviable that she
spoke of them and she beautifully carried it off that much as she had heard of
them though she didnt say how or where which was a touch of her own she
had found them beyond her supposition She abounded in praise of them and after
the manner of Woollett which made the manner of Woollett a loveable thing
again to Strether He had never so felt the true inwardness of it as when his
blooming companion pronounced the elder of the ladies of the Rue de Bellechasse
too fascinating for words and declared of the younger that she was perfectly
ideal a real little monster of charm »Nothing« she said of Jeanne »ought
ever to happen to her shes so awfully right as she is Another touch will
spoil her so she oughtnt to be touched«
»Ah but things here in Paris« Strether observed »do happen to little
girls« And then for the jokes and the occasions sake »Havent you found that
yourself«
»That things happen Oh Im not a little girl Im a big battered blowsy
one I dont care« Mamie laughed »what happens«
Strether had a pause while he wondered if it mightnt happen that he should
give her the pleasure of learning that he found her nicer than he had really
dreamed a pause that ended when he had said to himself that so far as it at
all mattered for her she had in fact perhaps already made this out He risked
accordingly a different question though conscious as soon as he had spoken
that he seemed to place it in relation to her last speech »But that
Mademoiselle de Vionnet is to be married I suppose youve heard of that«
For all he then found he need fear »Dear yes the gentleman was there
Monsieur de Montbron whom Madame de Vionnet presented to us«
»And was he nice«
Mamie bloomed and bridled with her best reception manner »Any mans nice
when hes in love«
It made Strether laugh »But is Monsieur de Montbron in love already
with you«
»Oh thats not necessary its so much better he should be so with her
which thank goodness I lost no time in discovering for myself Hes perfectly
gone and I couldnt have borne it for her if he hadnt been Shes just too
sweet«
Strether hesitated »And through being in love too«
On which with a smile that struck him as wonderful Mamie had a wonderful
answer »She doesnt know if she is or not«
It made him again laugh out »Oh but you do«
She was willing to take it that way »Oh yes I know everything« And as she
sat there rubbing her polished hands and making the best of it only holding
her elbows perhaps a little too much out the momentary effect for Strether was
that every one else in all their affair seemed stupid
»Know that poor little Jeanne doesnt know whats the matter with her«
It was as near as they came to saying that she was probably in love with
Chad but it was quite near enough for what Strether wanted which was to be
confirmed in his certitude that whether in love or not she appealed to
something large and easy in the girl before him Mamie would be fat too fat at
thirty but she would always be the person who at the present sharp hour had
been disinterestedly tender »If I see a little more of her as I hope I shall
I think shell like me enough for she seemed to like me today to want me to
tell her«
»And shall you«
»Perfectly I shall tell her the matter with her is that she wants only too
much to do right To do right for her naturally« said Mamie »is to please«
»Her mother do you mean«
»Her mother first«
Strether waited »And then«
»Well then Mr Newsome«
There was something really grand for him in the serenity of this reference
»And last only Monsieur de Montbron«
»Last only« she goodhumouredly kept it up
Strether considered »So that every one after all then will be suited«
She had one of her few hesitations but it was a question only of a moment
and it was her nearest approach to being explicit with him about what was
between them »I think I can speak for myself I shall be«
It said indeed so much told such a story of her being ready to help him so
committed to him that truth in short for such use as he might make of it
toward those ends of his own with which patiently and trustfully she had
nothing to do it so fully achieved all this that he appeared to himself simply
to meet it in its own spirit by the last frankness of admiration Admiration was
of itself almost accusatory but nothing less would serve to show her how nearly
he understood He put out his hand for goodbye with a »Splendid splendid
splendid« And he left her in her splendour still waiting for little Bilham
Book Tenth
I
Strether occupied beside little Bilham three evenings after his interview with
Mamie Pocock the same deep divan they had enjoyed together on the first
occasion of our friends meeting Madame de Vionnet and her daughter in the
apartment of the Boulevard Malesherbes where his position affirmed itself again
as ministering to an easy exchange of impressions The present evening had a
different stamp if the company was much more numerous so inevitably were the
ideas set in motion It was on the other hand however now strongly marked that
the talkers moved in respect to such matters round an inner a protected
circle They knew at any rate what really concerned them tonight and Strether
had begun by keeping his companion close to it Only a few of Chads guests had
dined that is fifteen or twenty a few compared with the large concourse
offered to sight by eleven oclock but number and mass quantity and quality
light fragrance sound the overflow of hospitality meeting the high tide of
response had all from the first pressed upon Strethers consciousness and he
felt himself somehow part and parcel of the most festive scene as the term was
in which he had ever in his life been engaged He had perhaps seen on Fourths
of July and on dear old domestic Commencements more people assembled but he
had never seen so many in proportion to the space or had at all events never
known so great a promiscuity to show so markedly as picked Numerous as was the
company it had still been made so by selection and what was above all rare for
Strether was that by no fault of his own he was in the secret of the principle
that had worked He hadnt enquired he had averted his head but Chad had put
him a pair of questions that themselves smoothed the ground He hadnt answered
the questions he had replied that they were the young mans own affair and he
had then seen perfectly that the latters direction was already settled
Chad had applied for counsel only by way of intimating that he knew what to
do and he had clearly never known it better than in now presenting to his
sister the whole circle of his society This was all in the sense and the spirit
of the note struck by him on that ladys arrival he had taken at the station
itself a line that led him without a break and that enabled him to lead the
Pococks though dazed a little no doubt breathless no doubt and bewildered
to the uttermost end of the passage accepted by them perforce as pleasant He
had made it for them violently pleasant and mercilessly full the upshot of
which was to Strethers vision that they had come all the way without
discovering it to be really no passage at all It was a brave blind alley where
to pass was impossible and where unless they stuck fast they would have
which was always awkward publicly to back out They were touching bottom
assuredly tonight the whole scene represented the terminus of the culdesac
So could things go when there was a hand to keep them consistent a hand that
pulled the wire with a skill at which the elder man more and more marvelled The
elder man felt responsible but he also felt successful since what had taken
place was simply the issue of his own contention six weeks before that they
properly should wait to see what their friends would have really to say He had
determined Chad to wait he had determined him to see he was therefore not to
quarrel with the time given up to the business As much as ever accordingly
now that a fortnight had elapsed the situation created for Sarah and against
which she had raised no protest was that of her having accommodated herself to
her adventure as to a pleasureparty surrendered perhaps even somewhat in excess
to bustle and to pace If her brother had been at any point the least bit open
to criticism it might have been on the ground of his spicing the draught too
highly and pouring the cup too full Frankly treating the whole occasion of the
presence of his relatives as an opportunity for amusement he left it no doubt
but scant margin as an opportunity for anything else He suggested invented
abounded yet all the while with the loosest easiest rein Strether during his
own weeks had gained a sense of knowing Paris but he saw it afresh and with
fresh emotion in the form of the knowledge offered to his colleague
A thousand unuttered thoughts hummed for him in the air of these
observations not the least frequent of which was that Sarah might well of a
truth not quite know whither she was drifting She was in no position not to
appear to expect that Chad should treat her handsomely yet she struck our
friend as privately stiffening a little each time she missed the chance of
marking the great nuance The great nuance was in brief that of course her
brother must treat her handsomely she should like to see him not but that
treating her handsomely none the less wasnt all in all treating her
handsomely buttered no parsnips and that in fine there were moments when she
felt the fixed eyes of their admirable absent mother fairly screw into the flat
of her back Strether watching after his habit and overscoring with thought
positively had moments of his own in which he found himself sorry for her
occasions on which she affected him as a person seated in a runaway vehicle and
turning over the question of a possible jump Would she jump could she would
that be a safe place this question at such instants sat for him in her
lapse into pallor her tight lips her conscious eyes It came back to the main
point at issue would she be after all to be squared He believed on the whole
she would jump yet his alternations on this subject were the more especial
stuff of his suspense One thing remained well before him a conviction that
was in fact to gain sharpness from the impressions of this evening that if she
should gather in her skirts close her eyes and quit the carriage while in
motion he would promptly enough become aware She would alight from her
headlong course more or less directly upon him it would be appointed to him
unquestionably to receive her entire weight Signs and portents of the
experience thus in reserve for him had as it happened multiplied even through
the dazzle of Chads party It was partly under the nervous consciousness of
such a prospect that leaving almost every one in the two other rooms leaving
those or the guests already known to him as well as a mass of brilliant
strangers of both sexes and of several varieties of speech he had desired five
quiet minutes with little Bilham whom he always found soothing and even a
little inspiring and to whom he had actually moreover something distinct and
important to say
He had felt of old for it already seemed long ago rather humiliated at
discovering he could learn in talk with a personage so much his junior the
lesson of a certain moral ease but he had now got used to that whether or no
the mixture of the fact with other humiliations had made it indistinct whether
or no directly from little Bilhams example the example of his being
contentedly just the obscure and acute little Bilham he was It worked so for
him Strether seemed to see and our friend had at private hours a wan smile
over the fact that he himself after so many more years was still in search of
something that would work However as we have said it worked just now for them
equally to have found a corner a little apart What particularly kept it apart
was the circumstance that the music in the salon was admirable with two or
three such singers as it was a privilege to hear in private Their presence gave
a distinction to Chads entertainment and the interest of calculating their
effect on Sarah was actually so sharp as to be almost painful Unmistakeably in
her single person the motive of the composition and dressed in a splendour of
crimson which affected Strether as the sound of a fall through a skylight she
would now be in the forefront of the listening circle and committed by it up to
her eyes Those eyes during the wonderful dinner itself he hadnt once met
having confessedly perhaps a little pusillanimously arranged with Chad that
he should be on the same side of the table But there was no use in having
arrived now with little Bilham at an unprecedented point of intimacy unless he
could pitch everything into the pot »You who sat where you could see her what
does she make of it all By which I mean on what terms does she take it«
»Oh she takes it I judge as proving that the claim of his family is more
than ever justified«
»She isnt then pleased with what he has to show«
»On the contrary shes pleased with it as with his capacity to do this kind
of thing more than she has been pleased with anything for a long time But she
wants him to show it there He has no right to waste it on the likes of us«
Strether wondered »She wants him to move the whole thing over«
»The whole thing with an important exception Everything he has picked up
and the way he knows how She sees no difficulty in that Shed run the show
herself and shell make the handsome concession that Woollett would be on the
whole in some ways the better for it Not that it wouldnt be also in some ways
the better for Woollett The people there are just as good«
»Just as good as you and these others Ah that may be But such an occasion
as this whether or no« Strether said »isnt the people Its what has made
the people possible«
»Well then« his friend replied »there you are I give you my impression
for what its worth Mrs Pocock has seen and thats tonight how she sits
there If you were to have a glimpse of her face youd understand me She has
made up her mind to the sound of expensive music«
Strether took it freely in »Ah then I shall have news of her«
»I dont want to frighten you but I think that likely However« little
Bilham continued »if Im of the least use to you to hold on by «
»Youre not of the least« and Strether laid an appreciative hand on him
to say it »No ones of the least« With which to mark how gaily he could take
it he patted his companions knee »I must meet my fate alone and I shall oh
youll see And yet« he pursued the next moment »you can help me too You once
said to me« he followed this further »that you held Chad should marry I
didnt see then so well as I know now that you meant he should marry Miss
Pocock Do you still consider that he should Because if you do« he kept it up
»I want you immediately to change your mind You can help me that way«
»Help you by thinking he should not marry«
»Not marry at all events Mamie«
»And who then«
»Ah« Strether returned »that Im not obliged to say But Madame de Vionnet
I suggest when he can«
»Oh« said little Bilham with some sharpness
»Oh precisely But he neednt marry at all Im at any rate not obliged to
provide for it Whereas in your case I rather feel that I am«
Little Bilham was amused »Obliged to provide for my marrying«
»Yes after all Ive done to you«
The young man weighed it »Have you done as much as that«
»Well« said Strether thus challenged »of course I must remember what
youve also done to me We may perhaps call it square But all the same« he
went on »I wish awfully youd marry Mamie Pocock yourself«
Little Bilham laughed out »Why it was only the other night in this very
place that you were proposing to me a different union altogether«
»Mademoiselle de Vionnet« Well Strether easily confessed it »That I
admit was a vain image This is practical politics I want to do something good
for both of you I wish you each so well and you can see in a moment the
trouble it will save me to polish you off by the same stroke She likes you you
know You console her And shes splendid«
Little Bilham stared as a delicate appetite stares at an overheaped plate
»What do I console her for«
It just made his friend impatient »Oh come you know«
»And what proves for you that she likes me«
»Why the fact that I found her three days ago stopping at home alone all the
golden afternoon on the mere chance that youd come to her and hanging over her
balcony on that of seeing your cab drive up I dont know what you want more«
Little Bilham after a moment found it »Only just to know what proves to you
that I like her«
»Oh if what Ive just mentioned isnt enough to make you do it youre a
stonyhearted little fiend Besides« Strether encouraged his fancys flight
»you showed your inclination in the way you kept her waiting kept her on
purpose to see if she cared enough for you«
His companion paid his ingenuity the deference of a pause »I didnt keep
her waiting I came at the hour I wouldnt have kept her waiting for the
world« the young man honourably declared
»Better still then there you are« And Strether charmed held him the
faster »Even if you didnt do her justice moreover« he continued »I should
insist on your immediately coming round to it I want awfully to have worked it
I want« and our friend spoke now with a yearning that was really earnest »at
least to have done that«
»To have married me off without a penny«
»Well I shant live long and I give you my word now and here that Ill
leave you every penny of my own I havent many unfortunately but you shall
have them all And Miss Pocock I think has a few I want« Strether went on
»to have been at least to that extent constructive even expiatory Ive been
sacrificing so to strange gods that I feel I want to put on record somehow my
fidelity fundamentally unchanged after all to our own I feel as if my hands
were embrued with the blood of monstrous alien altars of another faith
altogether There it is its done« And then he further explained »It took
hold of me because the idea of getting her quite out of the way for Chad helps
to clear my ground«
The young man at this bounced about and it brought them face to face in
admitted amusement »You want me to marry as a convenience to Chad«
»No« Strether debated »he doesnt care whether you marry or not Its as
a convenience simply to my own plan for him«
»Simply« and little Bilhams concurrence was in itself a lively comment
»Thank you But I thought« he continued »you had exactly no plan for him«
»Well then call it my plan for myself which may be well as you say to
have none His situation dont you see is reduced now to the bare facts one
has to recognise Mamie doesnt want him and he doesnt want Mamie so much as
that these days have made clear Its a thread we can wind up and tuck in«
But little Bilham still questioned »You can since you seem so much to
want to But why should I«
Poor Strether thought it over but was obliged of course to admit that his
demonstration did superficially fail »Seriously there is no reason Its my
affair I must do it alone Ive only my fantastic need of making my dose
stiff«
Little Bilham wondered »What do you call your dose«
»Why what I have to swallow I want my conditions unmitigated«
He had spoken in the tone of talk for talks sake and yet with an obscure
truth lurking in the loose folds a circumstance presently not without its
effect on his young friend Little Bilhams eyes rested on him a moment with
some intensity then suddenly as if everything had cleared up he gave a happy
laugh It seemed to say that if pretending or even trying or still even
hoping to be able to care for Mamie would be of use he was all there for the
job »Ill do anything in the world for you«
»Well« Strether smiled »anything in the world is all I want I dont know
anything that pleased me in her more« he went on »than the way that on my
finding her up there all alone coming on her unawares and feeling greatly for
her being so out of it she knocked down my tall house of cards with her instant
and cheerful allusion to the next young man It was somehow so the note I needed
her staying at home to receive him«
»It was Chad of course« said little Bilham »who asked the next young man
I like your name for me to call«
»So I supposed all of which thank God is in our innocent and natural
manners But do you know« Strether asked »if Chad knows « And then as this
interlocutor seemed at a loss »Why where she has come out«
Little Bilham at this met his face with a conscious look it was as if
more than anything yet the allusion had penetrated »Do you know yourself«
Strether lightly shook his head »There I stop Oh odd as it may appear to
you there are things I dont know I only got the sense from her of something
very sharp and yet very deep down that she was keeping all to herself That is
I had begun with the belief that she had kept it to herself but face to face
with her there I soon made out that there was a person with whom she would have
shared it I had thought she possibly might with me but I saw then that I was
only half in her confidence When turning to me to greet me for she was on
the balcony and I had come in without her knowing it she showed me she had
been expecting you and was proportionately disappointed I got hold of the tail
of my conviction Half an hour later I was in possession of all the rest of it
You know what has happened« He looked at his young friend hard then he felt
sure »For all you say youre up to your eyes So there you are«
Little Bilham after an instant pulled half round »I assure you she hasnt
told me anything«
»Of course she hasnt For what do you suggest that I suppose her to take
you But youve been with her every day youve seen her freely youve liked
her greatly I stick to that and youve made your profit of it You know what
she has been through as well as you know that she has dined here tonight
which must have put her by the way through a good deal more«
The young man faced this blast after which he pulled round the rest of the
way »I havent in the least said she hasnt been nice to me But shes proud«
»And quite properly But not too proud for that«
»Its just her pride that has made her Chad« little Bilham loyally went
on »has really been as kind to her as possible Its awkward for a man when a
girls in love with him«
»Ah but she isnt now«
Little Bilham sat staring before him then he sprang up as if his friends
penetration recurrent and insistent made him really after all too nervous »No
she isnt now It isnt in the least« he went on »Chads fault Hes really
all right I mean he would have been willing But she came over with ideas
Those she had got at home They had been her motive and support in joining her
brother and his wife She was to save our friend«
»Ah like me poor thing« Strether also got to his feet
»Exactly she had a bad moment It was very soon distinct to her to pull
her up to let her down that alas he was he is saved Theres nothing left
for her to do«
»Not even to love him«
»She would have loved him better as she originally believed him«
Strether wondered »Of course one asks ones self what notion a little girl
forms where a young mans in question of such a history and such a state«
»Well this little girl saw them no doubt as obscure but she saw them
practically as wrong The wrong for her was the obscure Chad turns out at any
rate right and good and disconcerting while what she was all prepared for
primed and girded and wound up for was to deal with him as the general
opposite«
»Yet wasnt her whole point« Strether weighed it »that he was to be
that he could be made better redeemed«
Little Bilham fixed it all a moment and then with a small headshake that
diffused a tenderness »Shes too late Too late for the miracle«
»Yes« his companion saw enough »Still if the worst fault of his
condition is that it may be all there for her to profit by «
»Oh she doesnt want to profit in that flat way She doesnt want to profit
by another womans work she wants the miracle to have been her own miracle
Thats what shes too late for«
Strether quite felt how it all fitted yet there seemed one loose piece
»Im bound to say you know that she strikes one on these lines as fastidious
what you call here difficile«
Little Bilham tossed up his chin »Of course shes difficile on any lines
What else in the world are our Mamies the real the right ones«
»I see I see« our friend repeated charmed by the responsive wisdom he had
ended by so richly extracting »Mamie is one or the real and the right«
»The very thing itself«
»And what it comes to then« Strether went on »is that poor awful Chad is
simply too good for her«
»Ah too good was what he was after all to be but it was she herself and
she herself only who was to have made him so«
It hung beautifully together but with still a loose end »Wouldnt he do
for her even if he should after all break «
»With his actual influence« Oh little Bilham had for this enquiry the
sharpest of all his controls »How can he do on any terms whatever when hes
flagrantly spoiled«
Strether could only meet the question with his passive his receptive
pleasure »Well thank goodness youre not You remain for her to save and I
come back on so beautiful and full a demonstration to my contention of just
now that of your showing distinct signs of her having already begun«
The most he could further say to himself as his young friend turned away
was that the charge encountered for the moment no renewed denial Little Bilham
taking his course back to the music only shook his goodnatured ears an
instant in the manner of a terrier who has got wet while Strether relapsed
into the sense which had for him in these days most of comfort that he was
free to believe in anything that from hour to hour kept him going He had
positively motions and flutters of this conscious hourtohour kind temporary
surrenders to irony to fancy frequent instinctive snatches at the growing rose
of observation constantly stronger for him as he felt in scent and colour
and in which he could bury his nose even to wantonness This last resource was
offered him for that matter in the very form of his next clear perception
the vision of a prompt meeting in the doorway of the room between little
Bilham and brilliant Miss Barrace who was entering as Bilham withdrew She had
apparently put him a question to which he had replied by turning to indicate
his late interlocutor toward whom after an interrogation further aided by a
resort to that optical machinery which seemed like her other ornaments curious
and archaic the genial lady suggesting more than ever for her fellow guest the
old French print the historic portrait directed herself with an intention that
Strether instantly met He knew in advance the first note she would sound and
took in as she approached all her need of sounding it Nothing yet had been so
wonderful between them as the present occasion and it was her special sense of
this quality in occasions that she was there as she was in most places to
feed That sense had already been so well fed by the situation about them that
she had quitted the other room forsaken the music dropped out of the play
abandoned in a word the stage itself that she might stand a minute behind the
scenes with Strether and so perhaps figure as one of the famous augurs replying
behind the oracle to the wink of the other Seated near him presently where
little Bilham had sat she replied in truth to many things beginning as soon as
he had said to her what he hoped he said without fatuity »All you ladies are
extraordinarily kind to me«
She played her long handle which shifted her observation she saw in an
instant all the absences that left them free »How can we be anything else But
isnt that exactly your plight We ladies oh were nice and you must be
having enough of us As one of us you know I dont pretend Im crazy about us
But Miss Gostrey at least tonight has left you alone hasnt she« With which
she again looked about as if Maria might still lurk
»Oh yes« said Strether »shes only sitting up for me at home« And then as
this elicited from his companion her gay »Oh oh oh« he explained that he
meant sitting up in suspense and prayer »We thought it on the whole better she
shouldnt be present and either way of course its a terrible worry for her«
He abounded in the sense of his appeal to the ladies and they might take their
choice of his doing so from humility or from pride »Yet she inclines to believe
I shall come out«
»Oh I incline to believe too youll come out« Miss Barrace with her
laugh was not to be behind »Only the questions about where isnt it
However« she happily continued »if its anywhere at all it must be very far
on mustnt it To do us justice I think you know« she laughed »we do among
us all want you rather far on Yes yes« she repeated in her quick droll way
»we want you very very far on« After which she wished to know why he had
thought it better Maria shouldnt be present
»Oh« he replied »it was really her own idea I should have wished it But
she dreads responsibility«
»And isnt that a new thing for her«
»To dread it No doubt no doubt But her nerve has given way«
Miss Barrace looked at him a moment »She has too much at stake« Then less
gravely »Mine luckily for me holds out«
»Luckily for me too« Strether came back to that »My own isnt so firm my
appetite for responsibility isnt so sharp as that I havent felt the very
principle of this occasion to be the more the merrier If we are so merry its
because Chad has understood so well«
»He has understood amazingly« said Miss Barrace
»Its wonderful« Strether anticipated for her
»Its wonderful« she to meet it intensified so that face to face over
it they largely and recklessly laughed But she presently added »Oh I see the
principle If one didnt one would be lost But when once one has got hold of it
«
»Its as simple as twice two From the moment he had to do something «
»A crowd« she took him straight up »was the only thing Rather rather
a rumpus of sound« she laughed »or nothing Mrs Pococks built in or built
out whichever you call it shes packed so tight she cant move Shes in
splendid isolation« Miss Barrace embroidered the theme
Strether followed but scrupulous of justice »Yet with every one in the
place successively introduced to her«
»Wonderfully but just so that it does build her out Shes bricked up
shes buried alive«
Strether seemed for a moment to look at it but it brought him to a sigh
»Oh but shes not dead It will take more than this to kill her«
His companion had a pause that might have been for pity »No I cant
pretend I think shes finished or that its for more than tonight« She
remained pensive as if with the same compunction »Its only up to her chin«
Then again for the fun of it »She can breathe«
»She can breathe« he echoed it in the same spirit »And do you know« he
went on »whats really all this time happening to me through the beauty of
music the gaiety of voices the uproar in short of our revel and the felicity
of your wit The sound of Mrs Pococks respiration drowns for me I assure you
every other Its literally all I hear«
She focussed him with her clink of chains »Well « she breathed ever so
kindly
»Well what«
»She is free from her chin up« she mused »and that will be enough for
her«
»It will be enough for me« Strether ruefully laughed »Waymarsh has
really« he then asked »brought her to see you«
»Yes but thats the worst of it I could do you no good And yet I tried
hard«
Strether wondered »And how did you try«
»Why I didnt speak of you«
»I see That was better«
»Then what would have been worse For speaking or silent« she lightly
wailed »I somehow compromise And it has never been any one but you«
»That shows« he was magnanimous »that its something not in you but in
ones self Its my fault«
She was silent a little »No its Mr Waymarshs Its the fault of his
having brought her«
»Ah then« said Strether goodnaturedly »why did he bring her«
»He couldnt afford not to«
»Oh you were a trophy one of the spoils of conquest But why in that case
since you do compromise «
»Dont I compromise him as well I do compromise him as well« Miss Barrace
smiled »I compromise him as hard as I can But for Mr Waymarsh it isnt fatal
Its so far as his wonderful relation with Mrs Pocock is concerned
favourable« And then as he still seemed slightly at sea »The man who had
succeeded with me dont you see For her to get him from me was such an added
incentive«
Strether saw but as if his path was still strewn with surprises »Its from
you then that she has got him«
She was amused at his momentary muddle »You can fancy my fight She
believes in her triumph I think it has been part of her joy«
»Oh her joy« Strether sceptically murmured
» Well she thinks she has had her own way And whats tonight for her but
a kind of apotheosis Her frocks really good«
»Good enough to go to heaven in For after a real apotheosis« Strether went
on »theres nothing but heaven For Sarah theres only tomorrow«
»And you mean that she wont find tomorrow heavenly«
»Well I mean that I somehow feel tonight on her behalf too good to be
true She has had her cake that is shes in the act now of having it of
swallowing the largest and sweetest piece There wont be another left for her
Certainly I havent one It can only at the best be Chad« He continued to
make it out as for their common entertainment »He may have one as it were up
his sleeve yet its borne in upon me that if he had «
»He wouldnt« she quite understood »have taken all this trouble I dare
say not and if I may be quite free and dreadful I very much hope he wont
take any more Of course I wont pretend now« she added »not to know what its
a question of«
»Oh every one must know now« poor Strether thoughtfully admitted »and its
strange enough and funny enough that one should feel everybody here at this very
moment to be knowing and watching and waiting«
»Yes isnt it indeed funny« Miss Barrace quite rose to it »Thats the
way we are in Paris« She was always pleased with a new contribution to that
queerness »Its wonderful But you know« she declared »it all depends on
you I dont want to turn the knife in your vitals but thats naturally what
you just now meant by our all being on top of you We know you as the hero of
the drama and were gathered to see what youll do«
Strether looked at her a moment with a light perhaps slightly obscured »I
think that must be why the hero has taken refuge in this corner Hes scared at
his heroism he shrinks from his part«
»Ah but we nevertheless believe hell play it Thats why« Miss Barrace
kindly went on »we take such an interest in you We feel youll come up to the
scratch« And then as he seemed perhaps not quite to take fire »Dont let him
do it«
»Dont let Chad go«
»Yes keep hold of him With all this« and she indicated the general
tribute »he has done enough We love him here hes charming«
»Its beautiful« said Strether »the way you all can simplify when you
will«
But she gave it to him back »Its nothing to the way you will when you
must«
He winced at it as at the very voice of prophecy and it kept him a moment
quiet He detained her however on her appearing about to leave him alone in
the rather cold clearance their talk had made »There positively isnt a sign of
a hero tonight the heros dodging and shirking the heros ashamed Therefore
you know I think what you must all really be occupied with is the heroine«
Miss Barrace took a minute »The heroine«
»The heroine Ive treated her« said Strether »not a bit like a hero Oh«
he sighed »I dont do it well«
She eased him off »You do it as you can« And then after another
hesitation »I think shes satisfied«
But he remained compunctious »I havent been near her I havent looked at
her«
»Ah then youve lost a good deal«
He showed he knew it »Shes more wonderful than ever«
»Than ever With Mr Pocock«
Strether wondered »Madame de Vionnet with Jim«
»Madame de Vionnet with Jim « Miss Barrace was historic
»And whats she doing with him«
»Ah you must ask him«
Strethers face lighted again at the prospect »It will be amusing to do
so« Yet he continued to wonder »But she must have some idea«
»Of course she has she has twenty ideas She has in the first place« said
Miss Barrace swinging a little her tortoiseshell »that of doing her part Her
part is to help you«
It came out as nothing had come yet links were missing and connexions
unnamed but it was suddenly as if they were at the heart of their subject
»Yes how much more she does it« Strether gravely reflected »than I help her«
It all came over him as with the near presence of the beauty the grace the
intense dissimulated spirit with which he had as he said been putting off
contact »She has courage«
»Ah she has courage« Miss Barrace quite agreed and it was as if for a
moment they saw the quantity in each others face
But indeed the whole thing was present »How much she must care«
»Ah there it is She does care But it isnt is it« Miss Barrace
considerately added »as if you had ever had any doubt of that«
Strether seemed suddenly to like to feel that he really never had »Why of
course its the whole point«
»Voilà« Miss Barrace smiled
»Its why one came out« Strether went on »And its why one has stayed so
long And its also« he abounded »why ones going home Its why its why
«
»Its why everything« she concurred »Its why she might be tonight for
all she looks and shows and for all your friend Jim does about twenty years
old Thats another of her ideas to be for him and to be quite easily and
charmingly as young as a little girl«
Strether assisted at his distance »For him For Chad «
»For Chad in a manner naturally always But in particular tonight for
Mr Pocock« And then as her friend still stared »Yes it is of a bravery But
thats what she has her high sense of duty« It was more than sufficiently
before them »When Mr Newsome has his hands so embarrassed with his sister «
»Its quite the least« Strether filled it out »that she should take his
sisters husband Certainly quite the least So she has taken him«
»She has taken him« It was all Miss Barrace had meant
Still it remained enough »It must be funny«
»Oh it is funny« That of course essentially went with it
But it brought them back »How indeed then she must care« In answer to
which Strethers entertainer dropped a comprehensive »Ah« expressive perhaps of
some impatience for the time he took to get used to it She herself had got used
to it long before
II
When one morning with in the week he perceived the whole thing to be really at
last upon him Strethers immediate feeling was all relief He had known this
morning that something was about to happen known it in a moment by
Waymarshs manner when Waymarsh appeared before him during his brief consumption
of coffee and a roll in the small slippery salleàmanger so associated with
rich rumination Strether had taken there of late various lonely and
absentminded meals he communed there even at the end of June with a
suspected chill the air of old shivers mixed with old savours the air in which
so many of his impressions had perversely matured the place meanwhile renewing
its message to him by the very circumstance of his single state He now sat
there for the most part to sigh softly while he vaguely tilted his carafe
over the vision of how much better Waymarsh was occupied That was really his
success by the common measure to have led this companion so on and on He
remembered how at first there had been scarce a squattingplace he could beguile
him into passing the actual outcome of which at last was that there was scarce
one that could arrest him in his rush His rush as Strether vividly and
amusedly figured it continued to be all with Sarah and contained perhaps
moreover the word of the whole enigma whipping up in its fine fullflavoured
froth the very principle for good or for ill of his own of Strethers
destiny It might after all to the end only be that they had united to save
him and indeed so far as Waymarsh was concerned that had to be the spring of
action Strether was glad at all events in connexion with the case that the
saving he required was not more scant so constituted a luxury was it in certain
lights just to lurk there out of the full glare He had moments of quite
seriously wondering whether Waymarsh wouldnt in fact thanks to old friendship
and a conceivable indulgence make about as good terms for him as he might make
for himself They wouldnt be the same terms of course but they might have the
advantage that he himself probably should be able to make none at all
He was never in the morning very late but Waymarsh had already been out
and after a peep into the dim refectory he presented himself with much less
than usual of his large looseness He had made sure through the expanse of
glass exposed to the court that they would be alone and there was now in fact
that about him that pretty well took up the room He was dressed in the garments
of summer and save that his white waistcoat was redundant and bulging these
things favoured they determined his expression He wore a straw hat such as
his friend hadnt yet seen in Paris and he showed a buttonhole freshly adorned
with a magnificent rose Strether read on the instant his story how astir for
the previous hour the sprinkled newness of the day so pleasant at that season
in Paris he was fairly panting with the pulse of adventure and had been with
Mrs Pocock unmistakeably to the Marché aux Fleurs Strether really knew in
this vision of him a joy that was akin to envy so reversed as he stood there
did their old positions seem so comparatively doleful now showed by the sharp
turn of the wheel the posture of the pilgrim from Woollett He wondered this
pilgrim if he had originally looked to Waymarsh so brave and well so
remarkably launched as it was at present the latters privilege to appear He
recalled that his friend had remarked to him even at Chester that his aspect
belied his plea of prostration but there certainly couldnt have been for an
issue an aspect less concerned than Waymarshs with the menace of decay
Strether had at any rate never resembled a Southern planter of the great days
which was the image picturesquely suggested by the happy relation between the
fuliginous face and the wide panama of his visitor This type it further amused
him to guess had been on Waymarshs part the object of Sarahs care he was
convinced that her taste had not been a stranger to the conception and purchase
of the hat any more than her fine fingers had been guiltless of the bestowal of
the rose It came to him in the current of thought as things so oddly did come
that he had never risen with the lark to attend a brilliant woman to the Marché
aux Fleurs this could be fastened on him in connexion neither with Miss Gostrey
nor with Madame de Vionnet the practice of getting up early for adventures
could indeed in no manner be fastened on him It came to him in fact that just
here was his usual case he was for ever missing things through his general
genius for missing them while others were for ever picking them up through a
contrary bent And it was others who looked abstemious and he who looked greedy
it was he somehow who finally paid and it was others who mainly partook Yes
he should go to the scaffold yet for he wouldnt know quite whom He almost for
that matter felt on the scaffold now and really quite enjoying it It worked
out as because he was anxious there it worked out as for this reason that
Waymarsh was so blooming It was his trip for health for a change that proved
the success which was just what Strether planning and exerting himself had
desired it should be That truth already sat fullblown on his companions lips
benevolence breathed from them as with the warmth of active exercise and also a
little as with the bustle of haste
»Mrs Pocock whom I left a quarter of an hour ago at her hotel has asked
me to mention to you that she would like to find you at home here in about
another hour She wants to see you she has something to say or considers I
believe that you may have so that I asked her myself why she shouldnt come
right round She hasnt been round yet to see our place and I took upon
myself to say that I was sure youd be glad to have her The things therefore
you see to keep right here till she comes«
The announcement was sociably even though after Waymarshs wont somewhat
solemnly made but Strether quickly felt other things in it than these light
features It was the first approach from that quarter to admitted
consciousness it quickened his pulse it simply meant at last that he should
have but himself to thank if he didnt know where he was He had finished his
breakfast he pushed it away and was on his feet There were plenty of elements
of surprise but only one of doubt »The things for you to keep here too«
Waymarsh had been slightly ambiguous
He wasnt ambiguous however after this enquiry and Strethers
understanding had probably never before opened so wide and effective a mouth as
it was to open during the next five minutes It was no part of his friends
wish as appeared to help to receive Mrs Pocock he quite understood the
spirit in which she was to present herself but his connexion with her visit was
limited to his having well as he might say perhaps a little promoted it He
had thought and had let her know it that Strether possibly would think she
might have been round before At any rate as turned out she had been wanting
herself quite a while to come »I told her« said Waymarsh »that it would
have been a bright idea if she had only carried it out before«
Strether pronounced it so bright as to be almost dazzling »But why hasnt
she carried it out before She has seen me every day she had only to name her
hour Ive been waiting and waiting«
»Well I told her you had And she has been waiting too« It was in the
oddest way in the world on the showing of this tone a genial new pressing
coaxing Waymarsh a Waymarsh conscious with a different consciousness from any
he had yet betrayed and actually rendered by it almost insinuating He lacked
only time for full persuasion and Strether was to see in a moment why
Meantime however our friend perceived he was announcing a step of some
magnanimity on Mrs Pococks part so that he could deprecate a sharp question
It was his own high purpose in fact to have smoothed sharp questions to rest He
looked his old comrade very straight in the eyes and he had never conveyed to
him in so mute a manner so much kind confidence and so much good advice
Everything that was between them was again in his face but matured and shelved
and finally disposed of »At any rate« he added »shes coming now«
Considering how many pieces had to fit themselves it all fell in
Strethers brain into a close rapid order He saw on the spot what had
happened and what probably would yet and it was all funny enough It was
perhaps just this freedom of appreciation that wound him up to his flare of high
spirits »What is she coming for to kill me«
»Shes coming to be very very kind to you and you must let me say that I
greatly hope youll not be less so to herself«
This was spoken by Waymarsh with much gravity of admonition and as Strether
stood there he knew he had but to make a movement to take the attitude of a man
gracefully receiving a present The present was that of the opportunity dear old
Waymarsh had flattered himself he had divined in him the slight soreness of not
having yet thoroughly enjoyed so he had brought it to him thus as on a little
silver breakfasttray familiarly though delicately without oppressive pomp
and he was to bend and smile and acknowledge was to take and use and be
grateful He was not that was the beauty of it to be asked to deflect too
much from his dignity No wonder the old boy bloomed in this bland air of his
own distillation Strether felt for a moment as if Sarah were actually walking
up and down outside Wasnt she hanging about the portecochère while her friend
thus summarily opened a way Strether would meet her but to take it and
everything would be for the best in the best of possible worlds He had never so
much known what any one meant as in the light of this demonstration he knew
what Mrs Newsome did It had reached Waymarsh from Sarah but it had reached
Sarah from her mother and there was no break in the chain by which it reached
him »Has anything particular happened« he asked after a minute »so suddenly
to determine her Has she heard anything unexpected from home«
Waymarsh on this it seemed to him looked at him harder than ever
»Unexpected« He had a brief hesitation then however he was firm »Were
leaving Paris«
»Leaving That is sudden«
Waymarsh showed a different opinion »Less so than it may seem The purpose
of Mrs Pococks visit is to explain to you in fact that its not«
Strether didnt at all know if he had really an advantage anything that
would practically count as one but he enjoyed for the moment as for the first
time in his life the sense of so carrying it off He wondered it was amusing
if he felt as the impudent feel »I shall take great pleasure I assure you
in any explanation I shall be delighted to receive Sarah«
The sombre glow just darkened in his comrades eyes but he was struck with
the way it died out again It was too mixed with another consciousness it was
too smothered as might be said in flowers He really for the time regretted it
poor dear old sombre glow Something straight and simple something heavy and
empty had been eclipsed in its company something by which he had best known
his friend Waymarsh wouldnt be his friend somehow without the occasional
ornament of the sacred rage and the right to the sacred rage inestimably
precious for Strethers charity he also seemed in a manner and at Mrs
Pococks elbow to have forfeited Strether remembered the occasion early in
their stay when on that very spot he had come out with his earnest his ominous
»Quit it« and so remembering felt it hang by a hair that he didnt himself
now utter the same note Waymarsh was having a good time this was the truth
that was embarrassing for him and he was having it then and there he was
having it in Europe he was having it under the very protection of circumstances
of which he didnt in the least approve all of which placed him in a false
position with no issue possible none at least by the grand manner It was
practically in the manner of any one it was all but in poor Strethers own
that instead of taking anything up he merely made the most of having to be
himself explanatory »Im not leaving for the United States direct Mr and Mrs
Pocock and Miss Mamie are thinking of a little trip before their own return and
weve been talking for some days past of our joining forces Weve settled it
that we do join and that we sail together the end of next month But we start
tomorrow for Switzerland Mrs Pocock wants some scenery She hasnt had much
yet«
He was brave in his way too keeping nothing back confessing all there was
and only leaving Strether to make certain connexions »Is what Mrs Newsome had
cabled her daughter an injunction to break off short«
The grand manner indeed at this just raised its head a little »I know
nothing about Mrs Newsomes cables«
Their eyes met on it with some intensity during the few seconds of which
something happened quite out of proportion to the time It happened that
Strether looking thus at his friend didnt take his answer for truth and
that something more again occurred in consequence of that Yes Waymarsh just
did know about Mrs Newsomes cables to what other end than that had they dined
together at Bignons Strether almost felt for the instant that it was to Mrs
Newsome herself the dinner had been given and for that matter quite felt how
she must have known about it and as he might think protected and consecrated
it He had a quick blurred view of daily cables questions answers signals
clear enough was his vision of the expense that when so wound up the lady at
home was prepared to incur Vivid not less was his memory of what during his
long observation of her some of her attainments of that high pitch had cost
her Distinctly she was at the highest now and Waymarsh who imagined himself
an independent performer was really forcing his fine old natural voice an
overstrained accompanist The whole reference of his errand seemed to mark her
for Strether as by this time consentingly familiar to him and nothing yet had
so despoiled her of a special shade of consideration »You dont know« he
asked »whether Sarah has been directed from home to try me on the matter of my
also going to Switzerland«
»I know« said Waymarsh as manfully as possible »nothing whatever about her
private affairs though I believe her to be acting in conformity with things
that have my highest respect« It was as manful as possible but it was still
the false note as it had to be to convey so sorry a statement He knew
everything Strether more and more felt that he thus disclaimed and his little
punishment was just in this doom to a second fib What falser position given
the man could the most vindictive mind impose He ended by squeezing through a
passage in which three months before he would certainly have stuck fast »Mrs
Pocock will probably be ready herself to answer any enquiry you may put to her
But« he continued »but « He faltered on it
»But what Dont put her too many«
Waymarsh looked large but the harm was done he couldnt do what he would
help looking rosy »Dont do anything youll be sorry for«
It was an attenuation Strether guessed of something else that had been on
his lips it was a sudden drop to directness and was thereby the voice of
sincerity He had fallen to the supplicating note and that immediately for our
friend made a difference and reinstated him They were in communication as they
had been that first morning in Sarahs salon and in her presence and Madame de
Vionnets and the same recognition of a great good will was again after all
possible Only the amount of response Waymarsh had then taken for granted was
doubled decupled now This came out when he presently said »Of course I
neednt assure you I hope youll come with us« Then it was that his
implications and expectations loomed up for Strether as almost pathetically
gross
The latter patted his shoulder while he thanked him giving the goby to the
question of joining the Pococks he expressed the joy he felt at seeing him go
forth again so brave and free and he in fact almost took leave of him on the
spot »I shall see you again of course before you go but Im meanwhile much
obliged to you for arranging so conveniently for what youve told me I shall
walk up and down in the court there dear little old court which weve each
bepaced so this last couple of months to the tune of our flights and our
drops our hesitations and our plunges I shall hang about there all impatience
and excitement please let Sarah know till she graciously presents herself
Leave me with her without fear« he laughed »I assure you I shant hurt her I
dont think either shell hurt me Im in a situation in which damage was some
time ago discounted Besides that isnt what worries you but dont dont
explain Were all right as we are which was the degree of success our
adventure was pledged to for each of us We werent it seemed all right as we
were before and weve got over the ground all things considered quickly I
hope youll have a lovely time in the Alps«
Waymarsh fairly looked up at him as from the foot of them »I dont know as
I ought really to go«
It was the conscience of Milrose in the very voice of Milrose but oh it
was feeble and flat Strether suddenly felt quite ashamed for him he breathed a
greater boldness »Let yourself on the contrary go in all agreeable
directions These are precious hours at our age they maynt recur Dont have
it to say to yourself at Milrose next winter that you hadnt courage for
them« And then as his comrade queerly stared »Live up to Mrs Pocock«
»Live up to her«
»Youre a great help to her«
Waymarsh looked at it as at one of the uncomfortable things that were
certainly true and that it was yet ironical to say »Its more then than you
are«
»Thats exactly your own chance and advantage Besides« said Strether »I
do in my way contribute I know what Im about«
Waymarsh had kept on his great panama and as he now stood nearer the door
his last look beneath the shade of it had turned again to darkness and warning
»So do I See here Strether«
»I know what youre going to say Quit this«
»Quit this« But it lacked its old intensity nothing of it remained it
went out of the room with him
III
Almost the first thing strangely enough that about an hour later Strether
found himself doing in Sarahs presence was to remark articulately on this
failure in their friend of what had been superficially his great distinction
It was as if he alluded of course to the grand manner the dear man had
sacrificed it to some other advantage which would be of course only for himself
to measure It might be simply that he was physically so much more sound than on
his first coming out this was all prosaic comparatively cheerful and vulgar
And fortunately if one came to that his improvement in health was really
itself grander than any manner it could be conceived as having cost him »You
yourself alone dear Sarah« Strether took the plunge »have done him it
strikes me in these three weeks as much good as all the rest of his time
together«
It was a plunge because somehow the range of reference was in the
conditions funny and made funnier still by Sarahs attitude by the turn the
occasion had with her appearance so sensibly taken Her appearance was really
indeed funnier than anything else the spirit in which he felt her to be there
as soon as she was there the shade of obscurity that cleared up for him as soon
as he was seated with her in the small salon de lecture that had for the most
part in all the weeks witnessed the wane of his early vivacity of discussion
with Waymarsh It was an immense thing quite a tremendous thing for her to
have come this truth opened out to him in spite of his having already arrived
for himself at a fairly vivid view of it He had done exactly what he had given
Waymarsh his word for had walked and rewalked the court while he awaited her
advent acquiring in this exercise an amount of light that affected him at the
time as flooding the scene She had decided upon the step in order to give him
the benefit of a doubt in order to be able to say to her mother that she had
even to abjectness smoothed the way for him The doubt had been as to whether
he mightnt take her as not having smoothed it and the admonition had possibly
come from Waymarshs more detached spirit Waymarsh had at any rate certainly
thrown his weight into the scale he had pointed to the importance of depriving
their friend of a grievance She had done justice to the plea and it was to set
herself right with a high ideal that she actually sat there in her state Her
calculation was sharp in the immobility with which she held her tall
parasolstick upright and at arms length quite as if she had struck the place
to plant her flag in the separate precautions she took not to show as nervous
in the aggressive repose in which she did quite nothing but wait for him Doubt
ceased to be possible from the moment he had taken in that she had arrived with
no proposal whatever that her concern was simply to show what she had come to
receive She had come to receive his submission and Waymarsh was to have made
it plain to him that she would expect nothing less He saw fifty things her
host at this convenient stage but one of those he most saw was that their
anxious friend hadnt quite had the hand required of him Waymarsh had however
uttered the request that she might find him mild and while hanging about the
court before her arrival he had turned over with zeal the different ways in
which he could be so The difficulty was that if he was mild he wasnt for her
purpose conscious If she wished him conscious as everything about her cried
aloud that she did she must accordingly be at costs to make him so Conscious
he was for himself but only of too many things so she must choose the one
she required
Practically however it at last got itself named and when once that had
happened they were quite at the centre of their situation One thing had really
done as well as another when Strether had spoken of Waymarshs leaving him and
that had necessarily brought on a reference to Mrs Pococks similar intention
the jump was but short to supreme lucidity Light became indeed after that so
intense that Strether would doubtless have but half made out in the prodigious
glare by which of the two the issue had been in fact precipitated It was in
their contracted quarters as much there between them as if it had been
something suddenly spilled with a crash and a splash on the floor The form of
his submission was to be an engagement to acquit himself within the twentyfour
hours »Hell go in a moment if you give him the word he assures me on his
honour hell do that« this came in its order out of its order in respect to
Chad after the crash had occurred It came repeatedly during the time taken by
Strether to feel that he was even more fixed in his rigour than he had supposed
the time he was not above adding to a little by telling her that such a way of
putting it on her brothers part left him sufficiently surprised She wasnt at
all funny at last she was really fine and he felt easily where she was strong
strong for herself It hadnt yet so come home to him that she was nobly and
appointedly officious She was acting in interests grander and clearer than that
of her poor little personal poor little Parisian equilibrium and all his
consciousness of her mothers moral pressure profited by this proof of its
sustaining force She would be held up she would be strengthened he neednt in
the least be anxious for her What would once more have been distinct to him had
he tried to make it so was that as Mrs Newsome was essentially all moral
pressure the presence of this element was almost identical with her own
presence It wasnt perhaps that he felt he was dealing with her straight but
it was certainly as if she had been dealing straight with him She was reaching
him somehow by the lengthened arm of the spirit and he was having to that
extent to take her into account but he wasnt reaching her in turn not making
her take him he was only reaching Sarah who appeared to take so little of him
»Something has clearly passed between you and Chad« he presently said »that I
think I ought to know something more about Does he put it all« he smiled »on
me«
»Did you come out« she asked »to put it all on him«
But he replied to this no further than after an instant by saying »Oh
its all right Chad I means all right in having said to you well anything he
may have said Ill take it all what he does put on me Only I must see him
before I see you again«
She hesitated but she brought it out »Is it absolutely necessary you
should see me again«
»Certainly if Im to give you any definite word about anything«
»Is it your idea then« she returned »that I shall keep on meeting you only
to be exposed to fresh humiliation«
He fixed her a longer time »Are your instructions from Mrs Newsome that
you shall even at the worst absolutely and irretrievably break with me«
»My instructions from Mrs Newsome are if you please my affair You know
perfectly what your own were and you can judge for yourself of what it can do
for you to have made what you have of them You can perfectly see at any rate
Ill go so far as to say that if I wish not to expose myself I must wish still
less to expose her« She had already said more than she had quite expected but
though she had also pulled up the colour in her face showed him he should from
one moment to the other have it all He now indeed felt the high importance of
his having it »What is your conduct« she broke out as if to explain »what is
your conduct but an outrage to women like us I mean your acting as if there can
be a doubt as between us and such another of his duty«
He thought a moment It was rather much to deal with at once not only the
question itself but the sore abysses it revealed »Of course theyre totally
different kinds of duty«
»And do you pretend that he has any at all to such another«
»Do you mean to Madame de Vionnet« He uttered the name not to affront her
but yet again to gain time time that he needed for taking in something still
other and larger than her demand of a moment before It wasnt at once that he
could see all that was in her actual challenge but when he did he found himself
just checking a low vague sound a sound which was perhaps the nearest approach
his vocal chords had ever known to a growl Everything Mrs Pocock had failed to
give a sign of recognising in Chad as a particular part of a transformation
everything that had lent intention to this particular failure affected him as
gathered into a large loose bundle and thrown in her words into his face The
missile made him to that extent catch his breath which however he presently
recovered »Why when a womans at once so charming and so beneficent «
»You can sacrifice mothers and sisters to her without a blush and can make
them cross the ocean on purpose to feel the more and take from you the
straighter how you do it«
Yes she had taken him up as short and as sharply as that but he tried not
to flounder in her grasp »I dont think theres anything Ive done in any such
calculated way as you describe Everything has come as a sort of
indistinguishable part of everything else Your coming out belonged closely to
my having come before you and my having come was a result of our general state
of mind Our general state of mind had proceeded on its side from our queer
ignorance our queer misconceptions and confusions from which since then an
inexorable tide of light seems to have floated us into our perhaps still queerer
knowledge Dont you like your brother as he is« he went on »and havent you
given your mother an intelligible account of all that that comes to«
It put to her also doubtless his own tone too many things this at least
would have been the case hadnt his final challenge directly helped her
Everything at the stage they had reached directly helped her because
everything betrayed in him such a basis of intention He saw the odd way
things came out that he would have been held less monstrous had he only been
a little wilder What exposed him was just his poor old trick of quiet
inwardness what exposed him was his thinking such offence He hadnt in the
least however the desire to irritate that Sarah imputed to him and he could
only at last temporise for the moment with her indignant view She was
altogether more inflamed than he had expected and he would probably understand
this better when he should learn what had occurred for her with Chad Till then
her view of his particular blackness her clear surprise at his not clutching
the pole she held out must pass as extravagant »I leave you to flatter
yourself« she returned »that what you speak of is what youve beautifully
done When a thing has been already described in such a lovely way « But she
caught herself up and her comment on his description rang out sufficiently
loud »Do you consider her even an apology for a decent woman«
Ah there it was at last She put the matter more crudely than for his own
mixed purposes he had yet had to do but essentially it was all one matter It
was so much so much and she treated it poor lady as so little He grew
conscious as he was now apt to do of a strange smile and the next moment he
found himself talking like Miss Barrace »She has struck me from the first as
wonderful Ive been thinking too moreover that after all she would probably
have represented even for yourself something rather new and rather good«
He was to have given Mrs Pocock with this however but her best
opportunity for a sound of derision »Rather new I hope so with all my heart«
»I mean« he explained »that she might have affected you by her exquisite
amiability a real revelation it has seemed to myself her high rarity her
distinction of every sort«
He had been with these words consciously a little precious but he had had
to be he couldnt give her the truth of the case without them and it seemed
to him moreover now that he didnt care He had at all events not served his
cause for she sprang at its exposed side »A revelation to me Ive come to
such a woman for a revelation You talk to me about distinction you you
whove had your privilege when the most distinguished woman we shall either
of us have seen in this world sits there insulted in her loneliness by your
incredible comparison«
Strether forbore with an effort from straying but he looked all about
him »Does your mother herself make the point that she sits insulted«
Sarahs answer came so straight so pat as might have been said that he
felt on the instant its origin »She has confided to my judgement and my
tenderness the expression of her personal sense of everything and the assertion
of her personal dignity«
They were the very words of the lady of Woollett he would have known them
in a thousand her parting charge to her child Mrs Pocock accordingly spoke to
this extent by book and the fact immensely moved him »If she does really feel
as you say its of course very very dreadful Ive given sufficient proof one
would have thought« he added »of my deep admiration for Mrs Newsome«
»And pray what proof would one have thought youd call sufficient That of
thinking this person here so far superior to her«
He wondered again he waited »Ah dear Sarah you must leave me this person
here«
In his desire to avoid all vulgar retorts to show how even perversely he
clung to his rag of reason he had softly almost wailed this plea Yet he knew
it to be perhaps the most positive declaration he had ever made in his life and
his visitors reception of it virtually gave it that importance »Thats exactly
what Im delighted to do God knows we dont want her You take good care not to
meet« she observed in a still higher key »my question about their life If you
do consider it a thing one can even speak of I congratulate you on your taste«
The life she alluded to was of course Chads and Madame de Vionnets which
she thus bracketed together in a way that made him wince a little there being
nothing for him but to take home her full intention It was none the less his
inconsequence that while he had himself been enjoying for weeks the view of the
brilliant womans specific action he just suffered from any characterisation of
it by other lips »I think tremendously well of her at the same time that I
seem to feel her life to be really none of my business Its my business that
is only so far as Chads own life is affected by it and what has happened
dont you see is that Chads has been affected so beautifully The proof of the
puddings in the eating« he tried with no great success to help it out with
a touch of pleasantry while she let him go on as if to sink and sink He went
on however well enough as well as he could do without fresh counsel he indeed
shouldnt stand quite firm he felt till he should have reestablished his
communications with Chad Still he could always speak for the woman he had so
definitely promised to save This wasnt quite for her the air of salvation but
as that chill fairly deepened what did it become but a reminder that one might
at the worst perish with her And it was simple enough it was rudimentary
not not to give her away »I find in her more merits than you would probably
have patience with my counting over And do you know« he enquired »the effect
you produce on me by alluding to her in such terms Its as if you had some
motive in not recognising all she has done for your brother and so shut your
eyes to each side of the matter in order whichever side comes up to get rid
of the other I dont you must allow me to say see how you can with any
pretence to candour get rid of the side nearest you«
»Near me that sort of thing« And Sarah gave a jerk back of her head that
well might have nullified any active proximity
It kept her friend himself at his distance and he respected for a moment
the interval Then with a last persuasive effort he bridged it »You dont on
your honour appreciate Chads fortunate development«
»Fortunate« she echoed again And indeed she was prepared »I call it
hideous«
Her departure had been for some minutes marked as imminent and she was
already at the door that stood open to the court from the threshold of which
she delivered herself of this judgement It rang out so loud as to produce for
the time the hush of everything else Strether quite as an effect of it
breathed less bravely he could acknowledge it but simply enough »Oh if you
think that «
»Then alls at an end So much the better I do think that« She passed out
as she spoke and took her way straight across the court beyond which separated
from them by the deep arch of the portecochère the low victoria that had
conveyed her from her own hotel was drawn up She made for it with decision and
the manner of her break the sharp shaft of her rejoinder had an intensity by
which Strether was at first kept in arrest She had let fly at him as from a
stretched cord and it took him a minute to recover from the sense of being
pierced It was not the penetration of surprise it was that much more of
certainty his case being put for him as he had as yet only put it to himself
She was away at any rate she had distanced him with rather a grand spring an
effect of pride and ease after all she had got into her carriage before he
could overtake her and the vehicle was already in motion He stopped halfway
he stood there in the court only seeing her go and noting that she gave him no
other look The way he had put it to himself was that all quite might be at an
end Each of her movements in this resolute rupture reaffirmed reenforced
that idea Sarah passed out of sight in the sunny street while planted there in
the centre of the comparatively grey court he continued merely to look before
him It probably was all at an end
Book Eleventh
I
He went late that evening to the Boulevard Malesherbes having his impression
that it would be vain to go early and having also more than once in the course
of the day made enquiries of the concierge Chad hadnt come in and had left no
intimation he had affairs apparently at this juncture as it occurred to
Strether he so well might have that kept him long abroad Our friend asked
once for him at the hotel in the Rue de Rivoli but the only contribution
offered there was the fact that every one was out It was with the idea that he
would have to come home to sleep that Strether went up to his rooms from which
however he was still absent though from the balcony a few moments later his
visitor heard eleven oclock strike Chads servant had by this time answered
for his reappearance he had the visitor learned come quickly in to dress for
dinner and vanish again Strether spent an hour in waiting for him an hour
full of strange suggestions persuasions recognitions one of those that he was
to recall at the end of his adventure as the particular handful that most had
counted The mellowest lamplight and the easiest chair had been placed at his
disposal by Baptiste subtlest of servants the novel halfuncut the novel
lemoncoloured and tender with the ivory knife athwart it like the dagger in a
contadinas hair had been pushed within the soft circle a circle which for
some reason affected Strether as softer still after the same Baptiste had
remarked that in the absence of a further need of anything by Monsieur he would
betake himself to bed The night was hot and heavy and the single lamp
sufficient the great flare of the lighted city rising high spending itself
afar played up from the Boulevard and through the vague vista of the
successive rooms brought objects into view and added to their dignity Strether
found himself in possession as he never yet had been he had been there alone
had turned over books and prints had invoked in Chads absence the spirit of
the place but never at the witching hour and never with a relish quite so like
a pang
He spent a long time on the balcony he hung over it as he had seen little
Bilham hang the day of his first approach as he had seen Mamie hang over her
own the day little Bilham himself might have seen her from below he passed back
into the rooms the three that occupied the front and that communicated by wide
doors and while he circulated and rested tried to recover the impression that
they had made on him three months before to catch again the voice in which they
had seemed then to speak to him That voice he had to note failed audibly to
sound which he took as the proof of all the change in himself He had heard of
old only what he could then hear what he could do now was to think of three
months ago as a point in the far past All voices had grown thicker and meant
more things they crowded on him as he moved about it was the way they sounded
together that wouldnt let him be still He felt strangely as sad as if he had
come for some wrong and yet as excited as if he had come for some freedom But
the freedom was what was most in the place and the hour it was the freedom that
most brought him round again to the youth of his own that he had long ago
missed He could have explained little enough today either why he had missed it
or why after years and years he should care that he had the main truth of the
actual appeal of everything was none the less that everything represented the
substance of his loss put it within reach within touch made it to a degree
it had never been an affair of the senses That was what it became for him at
this singular time the youth he had long ago missed a queer concrete
presence full of mystery yet full of reality which he could handle taste
smell the deep breathing of which he could positively hear It was in the
outside air as well as within it was in the long watch from the balcony in
the summer night of the wide late life of Paris the unceasing soft quick
rumble below of the little lighted carriages that in the press always
suggested the gamblers he had seen of old at Monte Carlo pushing up to the
tables This image was before him when he at last became aware that Chad was
behind
»She tells me you put it all on me« he had arrived after this promptly
enough at that information which expressed the case however quite as the young
man appeared willing for the moment to leave it Other things with this
advantage of their virtually having the night before them came up for them and
had as well the odd effect of making the occasion instead of hurried and
feverish one of the largest loosest and easiest to which Strethers whole
adventure was to have treated him He had been pursuing Chad from an early hour
and had overtaken him only now but now the delay was repaired by their being so
exceptionally confronted They had foregathered enough of course in all the
various times they had again and again since that first night at the theatre
been face to face over their question but they had never been so alone together
as they were actually alone their talk hadnt yet been so supremely for
themselves And if many things moreover passed before them none passed more
distinctly for Strether than that striking truth about Chad of which he had been
so often moved to take note the truth that everything came happily back with
him to his knowing how to live It had been seated in his pleased smile a
smile that pleased exactly in the right degree as his visitor turned round on
the balcony to greet his advent his visitor in fact felt on the spot that
there was nothing their meeting would so much do as bear witness to that
facility He surrendered himself accordingly to so approved a gift for what was
the meaning of the facility but that others did surrender themselves He didnt
want luckily to prevent Chad from living but he was quite aware that even if
he had he would himself have thoroughly gone to pieces It was in truth
essentially by bringing down his personal life to a function all subsidiary to
the young mans own that he held together And the great point above all the
sign of how completely Chad possessed the knowledge in question was that one
thus became not only with a proper cheerfulness but with wild native impulses
the feeder of his stream Their talk had accordingly not lasted three minutes
without Strethers feeling basis enough for the excitement in which he had
waited This overflow fairly deepened wastefully abounded as he observed the
smallness of anything corresponding to it on the part of his friend That was
exactly this friends happy case he put out his excitement or whatever other
emotion the matter involved as he put out his washing than which no
arrangement could make more for domestic order It was quite for Strether
himself in short to feel a personal analogy with the laundress bringing home the
triumphs of the mangle
When he had reported on Sarahs visit which he did very fully Chad
answered his question with perfect candour »I positively referred her to you
told her she must absolutely see you This was last night and it all took place
in ten minutes It was our first free talk really the first time she had
tackled me She knew I also knew what her line had been with yourself knew
moreover how little you had been doing to make anything difficult for her So I
spoke for you frankly assured her you were all at her service I assured her I
was too« the young man continued »and I pointed out how she could perfectly
at any time have got at me Her difficulty has been simply her not finding the
moment she fancied«
»Her difficulty« Strether returned »has been simply that she finds shes
afraid of you Shes not afraid of me Sarah one little scrap and it was just
because she has seen how I can fidget when I give my mind to it that she has
felt her best chance rightly enough to be in making me as uneasy as possible
I think shes at bottom as pleased to have you put it on me as you yourself can
possibly be to put it«
»But what in the world my dear man« Chad enquired in objection to this
luminosity »have I done to make Sally afraid«
»Youve been wonderful wonderful as we say we poor people who watch the
play from the pit and thats what has admirably made her Made her all the
more effectually that she could see you didnt set about it on purpose I mean
set about affecting her as with fear«
Chad cast a pleasant backward glance over his possibilities of motive »Ive
only wanted to be kind and friendly to be decent and attentive and I still
only want to be«
Strether smiled at his comfortable clearness »Well there can certainly be
no way for it better than by my taking the onus It reduces your personal
friction and your personal offence to almost nothing«
Ah but Chad with his completer conception of the friendly wouldnt quite
have this They had remained on the balcony where after their day of great and
premature heat the midnight air was delicious and they leaned back in turn
against the balustrade all in harmony with the chairs and the flowerpots the
cigarettes and the starlight »The onus isnt really yours after our agreeing
so to wait together and judge together That was all my answer to Sally« Chad
pursued »that we have been that we are just judging together«
»Im not afraid of the burden« Strether explained »I havent come in the
least that you should take it off me Ive come very much it seems to me to
double up my fore legs in the manner of the camel when he gets down on his knees
to make his back convenient But Ive supposed you all this while to have been
doing a lot of special and private judging about which I havent troubled you
and Ive only wished to have your conclusion first from you I dont ask more
than that Im quite ready to take it as it has come«
Chad turned up his face to the sky with a slow puff of his smoke »Well
Ive seen«
Strether waited a little »Ive left you wholly alone havent I think I
may say since the first hour or two when I merely preached patience so much
as breathed on you«
»Oh youve been awfully good«
»Weve both been good then weve played the game Weve given them the
most liberal conditions«
»Ah« said Chad »splendid conditions It was open to them open to them«
he seemed to make it out as he smoked with his eyes still on the stars He
might in quiet sport have been reading their horoscope Strether wondered
meanwhile what had been open to them and he finally let him have it »It was
open to them simply to let me alone to have made up their minds on really
seeing me for themselves that I could go on well enough as I was«
Strether assented to this proposition with full lucidity his companions
plural pronoun which stood all for Mrs Newsome and her daughter having no
ambiguity for him There was nothing apparently to stand for Mamie and Jim
and this added to our friends sense of Chads knowing what he thought »But
theyve made up their minds to the opposite that you cant go on as you are«
»No« Chad continued in the same way »they wont have it for a minute«
Strether on his side also reflectively smoked It was as if their high place
really represented some moral elevation from which they could look down on their
recent past »There never was the smallest chance do you know that they would
have it for a moment«
»Of course not no real chance But if they were willing to think there was
«
»They werent willing« Strether had worked it all out »It wasnt for you
they came out but for me It wasnt to see for themselves what youre doing
but what Im doing The first branch of their curiosity was inevitably destined
under my culpable delay to give way to the second and its on the second that
if I may use the expression and you dont mind my marking the invidious fact
theyve been of late exclusively perched When Sarah sailed it was me in other
words they were after«
Chad took it in both with intelligence and with indulgence »It is rather a
business then what Ive let you in for«
Strether had again a brief pause which ended in a reply that seemed to
dispose once for all of this element of compunction Chad was to treat it at
any rate so far as they were again together as having done so »I was in when
you found me«
»Ah but it was you« the young man laughed »who found me«
»I only found you out It was you who found me in It was all in the days
work for them at all events that they should come And theyve greatly enjoyed
it« Strether declared
»Well Ive tried to make them« said Chad
His companion did himself presently the same justice »So have I I tried
even this very morning while Mrs Pocock was with me She enjoys for instance
almost as much as anything else not being as Ive said afraid of me and I
think I gave her help in that«
Chad took a deeper interest »Was she very very nasty«
Strether debated »Well she was the most important thing she was
definite She was at last crystalline And I felt no remorse I saw that
they must have come«
»Oh I wanted to see them for myself so that if it were only for that «
Chads own remorse was as small
This appeared almost all Strether wanted »Isnt your having seen them for
yourself then the thing beyond all others that has come of their visit«
Chad looked as if he thought it nice of his old friend to put it so »Dont
you count it as anything that youre dished if you are dished Are you my
dear man dished«
It sounded as if he were asking if he had caught cold or hurt his foot and
Strether for a minute but smoked and smoked »I want to see her again I must
see her«
»Of course you must« Then Chad hesitated »Do you mean a Mother
herself«
»Oh your mother that will depend«
It was as if Mrs Newsome had somehow been placed by the words very far off
Chad however endeavoured in spite of this to reach the place »What do you mean
it will depend on«
Strether for all answer gave him a longish look »I was speaking of Sarah
I must positively though she quite cast me off see her again I cant part
with her that way«
»Then she was awfully unpleasant«
Again Strether exhaled »She was what she had to be I mean that from the
moment theyre not delighted they can only be well what I admit she was We
gave them« he went on »their chance to be delighted and theyve walked up to
it and looked all round it and not taken it«
»You can bring a horse to water « Chad suggested
»Precisely And the tune to which this morning Sarah wasnt delighted the
tune to which to adopt your metaphor she refused to drink leaves us on that
side nothing more to hope«
Chad had a pause and then as if consolingly »It was never of course really
the least on the cards that they would be delighted«
»Well I dont know after all« Strether mused »Ive had to come as far
round However« he shook it off »its doubtless my performance thats
absurd«
»There are certainly moments« said Chad »when you seem to me too good to
be true Yet if you are true« he added »that seems to be all that need concern
me«
»Im true but Im incredible Im fantastic and ridiculous I dont
explain myself even to myself How can they then« Strether asked »understand
me So I dont quarrel with them«
»I see They quarrel« said Chad rather comfortably »with us« Strether
noted once more the comfort but his young friend had already gone on »I should
feel greatly ashamed all the same if I didnt put it before you again that you
ought to think after all tremendously well I mean before giving up beyond
recall « With which insistence as from a certain delicacy dropped
Ah but Strether wanted it »Say it all say it all«
»Well at your age and with what when alls said and done Mother might
do for you and be for you«
Chad had said it all from his natural scruple only to that extent so that
Strether after an instant himself took a hand »My absence of an assured future
The little I have to show toward the power to take care of myself The way the
wonderful way she would certainly take care of me Her fortune her kindness
and the constant miracle of her having been disposed to go even so far Of
course of course« he summed it up »There are those sharp facts«
Chad had meanwhile thought of another still »And dont you really care «
His friend slowly turned round to him »Will you go«
»Ill go if youll say you now consider I should You know« he went on »I
was ready six weeks ago«
»Ah« said Strether »that was when you didnt know I wasnt Youre ready
at present because you do know it«
»That may be« Chad returned »but all the same Im sincere You talk about
taking the whole thing on your shoulders but in what light do you regard me
that you think me capable of letting you pay« Strether patted his arm as they
stood together against the parapet reassuringly seeming to wish to contend
that he had the wherewithal but it was again round this question of purchase
and price that the young mans sense of fairness continued to hover »What it
literally comes to for you if youll pardon my putting it so is that you give
up money Possibly a good deal of money«
»Oh« Strether laughed »if it were only just enough youd still be
justified in putting it so But Ive on my side to remind you too that you give
up money and more than possibly quite certainly as I should suppose a good
deal«
»True enough but Ive got a certain quantity« Chad returned after a
moment »Whereas you my dear man you «
»I cant be at all said« Strether took him up »to have a quantity
certain or uncertain Very true Still I shant starve«
»Oh you mustnt starve« Chad pacifically emphasised and so in the
pleasant conditions they continued to talk though there was for that matter
a pause in which the younger companion might have been taken as weighing again
the delicacy of his then and there promising the elder some provision against
the possibility just mentioned This however he presumably thought best not to
do for at the end of another minute they had moved in quite a different
direction Strether had broken in by returning to the subject of Chads passage
with Sarah and enquiring if they had arrived in the event at anything in the
nature of a scene To this Chad replied that they had on the contrary kept
tremendously polite adding moreover that Sally was after all not the woman to
have made the mistake of not being »Her hands are a good deal tied you see I
got so from the first« he sagaciously observed »the start of her«
»You mean she has taken so much from you«
»Well I couldnt of course in common decency give less only she hadnt
expected I think that Id give her nearly so much And she began to take it
before she knew it«
»And she began to like it« said Strether »as soon as she began to take
it«
»Yes she has liked it also more than she expected« After which Chad
observed »But she doesnt like me In fact she hates me«
Strethers interest grew »Then why does she want you at home«
»Because when you hate you want to triumph and if she should get me neatly
stuck there she would triumph«
Strether followed afresh but looking as he went »Certainly in a manner
But it would scarce be a triumph worth having if once entangled feeling her
dislike and possibly conscious in time of a certain quantity of your own you
should on the spot make yourself unpleasant to her«
»Ah« said Chad »she can bear me could bear me at least at home Its my
being there that would be her triumph She hates me in Paris«
»She hates in other words «
»Yes thats it« Chad had quickly understood this understanding which
formed on the part of each as near an approach as they had yet made to naming
Madame de Vionnet The limitations of their distinctness didnt however
prevent its fairly lingering in the air that it was this lady Mrs Pocock hated
It added one more touch moreover to their established recognition of the rare
intimacy of Chads association with her He had never yet more twitched away the
last light veil from this phenomenon than in presenting himself as confounded
and submerged in the feeling she had created at Woollett »And Ill tell you who
hates me too« he immediately went on
Strether knew as immediately whom he meant but with as prompt a protest
»Ah no Mamie doesnt hate well« he caught himself in time »anybody at all
Mamies beautiful«
Chad shook his head »Thats just why I mind it She certainly doesnt like
me«
»How much do you mind it What would you do for her«
»Well Id like her if shed like me Really really« Chad declared
It gave his companion a moments pause »You asked me just now if I dont
as you said care about a certain person You rather tempt me therefore to put
the question in my turn Dont you care about a certain other person«
Chad looked at him hard in the lamplight of the window »The difference is
that I dont want to«
Strether wondered »Dont want to«
»I try not to that is I have tried Ive done my best You cant be
surprised« the young man easily went on »when you yourself set me on it I was
indeed« he added »already on it a little but you set me harder It was six
weeks ago that I thought I had come out«
Strether took it well in »But you havent come out«
»I dont know its what I want to know« said Chad »And if I could have
sufficiently wanted by myself to go back I think I might have found out«
»Possibly« Strether considered »But all you were able to achieve was to
want to want to And even then« he pursued »only till our friends there came
Do you want to want to still« As with a sound halfdolorous halfdroll and all
vague and equivocal Chad buried his face for a little in his hands rubbing it
in a whimsical way that amounted to an evasion he brought it out more sharply
»Do you«
Chad kept for a time his attitude but at last he looked up and then
abruptly »Jim is a damned dose« he declared
»Oh I dont ask you to abuse or describe or in any way pronounce on your
relatives I simply put it to you once more whether youre now ready You say
youve seen Is what youve seen that you cant resist«
Chad gave him a strange smile the nearest approach he had ever shown to a
troubled one »Cant you make me not resist«
»What it comes to« Strether went on very gravely now and as if he hadnt
heard him »what it comes to is that more has been done for you I think than
Ive ever seen done attempted perhaps but never so successfully done by one
human being for another«
»Oh an immense deal certainly« Chad did it full justice »And you yourself
are adding to it«
It was without heeding this either that his visitor continued »And our
friends there wont have it«
»No they simply wont«
»They demand you on the basis as it were of repudiation and ingratitude
and what has been the matter with me« Strether went on »is that I havent seen
my way to working with you for repudiation«
Chad appreciated this »Then as you havent seen yours you naturally havent
seen mine There it is« After which he proceeded with a certain abruptness to
a sharp interrogation »Now do you say she doesnt hate me«
Strether hesitated »She «
»Yes Mother We called it Sarah but it comes to the same thing«
»Ah« Strether objected »not to the same thing as her hating you«
On which though as if for an instant it had hung fire Chad remarkably
replied »Well if they hate my good friend that comes to the same thing« It
had a note of inevitable truth that made Strether take it as enough feel he
wanted nothing more The young man spoke in it for his good friend more than he
had ever yet directly spoken confessed to such deep identities between them as
he might play with the idea of working free from but which at a given moment
could still draw him down like a whirlpool And meanwhile he had gone on »Their
hating you too moreover that also comes to a good deal«
»Ah« said Strether »your mother doesnt«
Chad however loyally stuck to it loyally that is to Strether »She
will if you dont look out«
»Well I do look out I am after all looking out Thats just why« our
friend explained »I want to see her again«
It drew from Chad again the same question »To see Mother«
»To see for the present Sarah«
»Ah then there you are And what I dont for the life of me make out« Chad
pursued with resigned perplexity »is what you gain by it«
Oh it would have taken his companion too long to say »Thats because you
have I verily believe no imagination Youve other qualities But no
imagination dont you see at all«
»I dare say I do see« It was an idea in which Chad showed interest »But
havent you yourself rather too much«
»Oh rather « So that after an instant under this reproach and as if it
were at last a fact really to escape from Strether made his move for departure
II
One of the features of the restless afternoon passed by him after Mrs Pococks
visit was an hour spent shortly before dinner with Maria Gostrey whom of
late in spite of so sustained a call on his attention from other quarters he
had by no means neglected And that he was still not neglecting her will appear
from the fact that he was with her again at the same hour on the very morrow
with no less fine a consciousness moreover of being able to hold her ear It
continued inveterately to occur for that matter that whenever he had taken one
of his greater turns he came back to where she so faithfully awaited him None
of these excursions had on the whole been livelier than the pair of incidents
the fruit of the short interval since his previous visit on which he had now
to report to her He had seen Chad Newsome late the night before and he had had
that morning as a sequel to this conversation a second interview with Sarah
»But theyre all off« he said »at last«
It puzzled her a moment »All Mr Newsome with them«
»Ah not yet Sarah and Jim and Mamie But Waymarsh with them for Sarah
Its too beautiful« Strether continued »I find I dont get over that its
always a fresh joy But its a fresh joy too« he added »that well what do
you think Little Bilham also goes But he of course goes for Mamie«
Miss Gostrey wondered »For her Do you mean theyre already engaged«
»Well« said Strether »say then for me Hell do anything for me just as I
will for that matter anything I can for him Or for Mamie either Shell do
anything for me«
Miss Gostrey gave a comprehensive sigh »The way you reduce people to
subjection«
»Its certainly on one side wonderful But its quite equalled on
another by the way I dont I havent reduced Sarah since yesterday though
Ive succeeded in seeing her again as Ill presently tell you The others
however are really all right Mamie by that blessed law of ours absolutely
must have a young man«
»But what must poor Mr Bilham have Do you mean theyll marry for you«
»I mean that by the same blessed law it wont matter a grain if they dont
I shant have in the least to worry«
She saw as usual what he meant »And Mr Jim who goes for him«
»Oh« Strether had to admit »I couldnt manage that Hes thrown as usual
on the world the world which after all by his account for he has prodigious
adventures seems very good to him He fortunately over here as he says
finds the world everywhere and his most prodigious adventure of all« he went
on »has been of course of the last few days«
Miss Gostrey already knowing instantly made the connexion »He has seen
Marie de Vionnet again«
»He went all by himself the day after Chads party didnt I tell you
to tea with her By her invitation all alone«
»Quite like yourself« Maria smiled
»Oh but hes more wonderful about her than I am« And then as his friend
showed how she could believe it filling it out fitting it on to old memories
of the wonderful woman »What I should have liked to manage would have been her
going«
»To Switzerland with the party«
»For Jim and for symmetry If it had been workable moreover for a
fortnight shed have gone Shes ready« he followed up his renewed vision of
her »for anything«
Miss Gostrey went with him a minute »Shes too perfect«
»She will I think« he pursued »go tonight to the station«
»To see him off«
»With Chad marvellously as part of their general attention And she does
it« it kept before him »with a light light grace a free free gaiety that
may well softly bewilder Mr Pocock«
It kept her so before him that his companion had after an instant a friendly
comment »As in short it has softly bewildered a saner man Are you really in
love with her« Maria threw off
»Its of no importance I should know« he replied »It matters so little
has nothing to do practically with either of us«
»All the same« Maria continued to smile »they go the five as I
understand you and you and Madame de Vionnet stay«
»Oh and Chad« To which Strether added »And you«
»Ah me« she gave a small impatient wail again in which something of the
unreconciled seemed suddenly to break out »I dont stay it somehow seems to
me much to my advantage In the presence of all you cause to pass before me
Ive a tremendous sense of privation«
Strether hesitated »But your privation your keeping out of everything has
been hasnt it by your own choice«
»Oh yes it has been necessary that is it has been better for you What I
mean is only that I seem to have ceased to serve you«
»How can you tell that« he asked »You dont know how you serve me When
you cease «
»Well« she said as he dropped
»Well Ill let you know Be quiet till then«
She thought a moment »Then you positively like me to stay«
»Dont I treat you as if I did«
»Youre certainly very kind to me But that« said Maria »is for myself
Its getting late as you see and Paris turning rather hot and dusty People
are scattering and some of them in other places want me But if you want me
here «
She had spoken as resigned to his word but he had of a sudden a still
sharper sense than he would have expected of desiring not to lose her »I want
you here«
She took it as if the words were all she had wished as if they brought her
gave her something that was the compensation of her case »Thank you« she
simply answered And then as he looked at her a little harder »Thank you very
much« she repeated
It had broken as with a slight arrest into the current of their talk and it
held him a moment longer »Why two months or whatever the time was ago did
you so suddenly dash off The reason you afterwards gave me for having kept away
three weeks wasnt the real one«
She recalled »I never supposed you believed it was Yet« she continued
»if you didnt guess it that was just what helped you«
He looked away from her on this he indulged so far as space permitted in
one of his slow absences »Ive often thought of it but never to feel that I
could guess it And you see the consideration with which Ive treated you in
never asking till now«
»Now then why do you ask«
»To show you how I miss you when youre not here and what it does for me«
»It doesnt seem to have done« she laughed »all it might However« she
added »if youve really never guessed the truth Ill tell it you«
»Ive never guessed it« Strether declared
»Never«
»Never«
»Well then I dashed off as you say so as not to have the confusion of
being there if Marie de Vionnet should tell you anything to my detriment«
He looked as if he considerably doubted »You even then would have had to
face it on your return«
»Oh if I had found reason to believe it something very bad Id have left you
altogether«
»So then« he continued »it was only on guessing she had been on the whole
merciful that you ventured back«
Maria kept it together »I owe her thanks Whatever her temptation she
didnt separate us Thats one of my reasons« she went on »for admiring her
so«
»Let it pass then« said Strether »for one of mine as well But what would
have been her temptation«
»What are ever the temptations of women«
He thought but hadnt naturally to think too long »Men«
»She would have had you with it more for herself But she saw she could
have you without it«
»Oh have me« Strether a trifle ambiguously sighed »You« he handsomely
declared »would have had me at any rate with it«
»Oh have you« she echoed it as he had done »I do have you however« she
less ironically said »from the moment you express a wish«
He stopped before her full of the disposition »Ill express fifty«
Which indeed begot in her with a certain inconsequence a return of her
small wail »Ah there you are«
There if it were so he continued for the rest of the time to be and it
was as if to show her how she could still serve him that coming back to the
departure of the Pococks he gave her the view vivid with a hundred more
touches than we can reproduce of what had happened for him that morning He had
had ten minutes with Sarah at her hotel ten minutes reconquered by
irresistible pressure from the time over which he had already described her to
Miss Gostrey as having at the end of their interview on his own premises
passed the great sponge of the future He had caught her by not announcing
himself had found her in her sittingroom with a dressmaker and a lingère whose
accounts she appeared to have been more or less ingenuously settling and who
soon withdrew Then he had explained to her how he had succeeded late the night
before in keeping his promise of seeing Chad »I told her Id take it all«
»Youd take it«
»Why if he doesnt go«
Maria waited »And who takes it if he does« she enquired with a certain
grimness of gaiety
»Well« said Strether »I think I take in any event everything«
»By which I suppose you mean« his companion brought out after a moment
»that you definitely understand you now lose everything«
He stood before her again »It does come perhaps to the same thing But
Chad now that he has seen doesnt really want it«
She could believe that but she made as always for clearness »Still
what after all has he seen«
»What they want of him And its enough«
»It contrasts so unfavourably with what Madame de Vionnet wants«
»It contrasts just so all round and tremendously«
»Therefore perhaps most of all with what you want«
»Oh« said Strether »what I want is a thing Ive ceased to measure or even
to understand«
But his friend none the less went on »Do you want Mrs Newsome after such
a way of treating you«
It was a straighter mode of dealing with this lady than they had as yet
such was their high form permitted themselves but it seemed not wholly for
this that he delayed a moment »I dare say it has been after all the only way
she could have imagined«
»And does that make you want her any more«
»Ive tremendously disappointed her« Strether thought it worth while to
mention
»Of course you have Thats rudimentary that was plain to us long ago But
isnt it almost as plain« Maria went on »that youve even yet your straight
remedy Really drag him away as I believe you still can and youd cease to
have to count with her disappointment«
»Ah then« he laughed »I should have to count with yours«
But this barely struck her now »What in that case should you call
counting You havent come out where you are I think to please me«
»Oh« he insisted »that too you know has been part of it I cant
separate its all one and thats perhaps why as I say I dont understand«
But he was ready to declare again that this didnt in the least matter all the
more that as he affirmed he hadnt really as yet come out »She gives me after
all on its coming to the pinch a last mercy another chance They dont sail
you see for five or six weeks more and they havent she admits that
expected Chad would take part in their tour Its still open to him to join
them at the last at Liverpool«
Miss Gostrey considered »How in the world is it open unless you open it
How can he join them at Liverpool if he but sinks deeper into his situation
here«
»He has given her as I explained to you that she let me know yesterday
his word of honour to do as I say«
Maria stared »But if you say nothing«
Well he as usual walked about on it »I did say something this morning I
gave her my answer the word I had promised her after hearing from himself what
he had promised What she demanded of me yesterday youll remember was the
engagement then and there to make him take up this vow«
»Well then« Miss Gostrey enquired »was the purpose of your visit to her
only to decline«
»No it was to ask odd as that may seem to you for another delay«
»Ah thats weak«
»Precisely« She had spoken with impatience but so far as that at least
he knew where he was »If I am weak I want to find it out If I dont find it
out I shall have the comfort the little glory of thinking Im strong«
»Its all the comfort I judge« she returned »that you will have«
»At any rate« he said »it will have been a month more Paris may grow
from day to day hot and dusty as you say but there are other things that are
hotter and dustier Im not afraid to stay on the summer here must be amusing
in a wild if it isnt a tame way of its own the place at no time more
picturesque I think I shall like it And then« he benevolently smiled for her
»there will be always you«
»Oh« she objected »it wont be as a part of the picturesqueness that I
shall stay for I shall be the plainest thing about you You may you see at
any rate« she pursued »have nobody else Madame de Vionnet may very well be
going off maynt she and Mr Newsome by the same stroke unless indeed
youve had an assurance from them to the contrary So that if your ideas to
stay for them« it was her duty to suggest it »you may be left in the lurch
Of course if they do stay« she kept it up »they would be part of the
picturesqueness Or else indeed you might join them somewhere«
Strether seemed to face it as if it were a happy thought but the next
moment he spoke more critically »Do you mean that theyll probably go off
together«
She just considered »I think it will be treating you quite without ceremony
if they do though after all« she added »it would be difficult to see now
quite what degree of ceremony properly meets your case«
»Of course« Strether conceded »my attitude toward them is extraordinary«
»Just so so that one may ask ones self what style of proceeding on their
own part can altogether match it The attitude of their own that wont pale in
its light theyve doubtless still to work out The really handsome thing
perhaps« she presently threw off »would be for them to withdraw into more
secluded conditions offering at the same time to share them with you« He
looked at her on this as if some generous irritation all in his interest
had suddenly again flickered in her and what she next said indeed half
explained it »Dont really be afraid to tell me if what now holds you is the
pleasant prospect of the empty town with plenty of seats in the shade cool
drinks deserted museums drives to the Bois in the evening and our wonderful
woman all to yourself« And she kept it up still more »The handsomest thing of
all when one makes it out would I dare say be that Mr Chad should for a
while go off by himself Its a pity from that point of view« she wound up
»that he doesnt pay his mother a visit It would at least occupy your
interval« The thought in fact held her a moment »Why doesnt he pay his mother
a visit Even a week at this good moment would do«
»My dear lady« Strether replied and he had it even to himself
surprisingly ready »my dear lady his mother has paid him a visit Mrs
Newsome has been with him this month with an intensity that Im sure he has
thoroughly felt he has lavishly entertained her and she has let him have her
thanks Do you suggest he shall go back for more of them«
Well she succeeded after a little in shaking it off »I see Its what you
dont suggest what you havent suggested And you know«
»So would you my dear« he kindly said »if you had so much as seen her«
»As seen Mrs Newsome«
»No Sarah which both for Chad and for myself has served all the
purpose«
»And served it in a manner« she responsively mused »so extraordinary«
»Well you see« he partly explained »what it comes to is that shes all
cold thought which Sarah could serve to us cold without its really losing
anything So it is that we know what she thinks of us«
Maria had followed but she had an arrest »What Ive never made out if you
come to that is what you think I mean you personally of her Dont you so
much when alls said as care a little«
»That« he answered with no loss of promptness »is what even Chad himself
asked me last night He asked me if I dont mind the loss well the loss of an
opulent future Which moreover« he hastened to add »was a perfectly natural
question«
»I call your attention all the same« said Miss Gostrey »to the fact that
I dont ask it What I venture to ask is whether its to Mrs Newsome herself
that youre indifferent«
»I havent been so« he spoke with all assurance »Ive been the very
opposite Ive been from the first moment preoccupied with the impression
everything might be making on her quite oppressed haunted tormented by it
Ive been interested only in her seeing what Ive seen And Ive been as
disappointed in her refusal to see it as she has been in what has appeared to
her the perversity of my insistence«
»Do you mean that she has shocked you as youve shocked her«
Strether weighed it »Im probably not so shockable But on the other hand
Ive gone much further to meet her She on her side hasnt budged an inch«
»So that youre now at last« Maria pointed the moral »in the sad stage
of recriminations«
»No its only to you I speak Ive been like a lamb to Sarah Ive only
put my back to the wall Its to that one naturally staggers when one has been
violently pushed there«
She watched him a moment »Thrown over«
»Well as I feel Ive landed somewhere I think I must have been thrown«
She turned it over but as hoping to clarify much rather than to harmonise
»The thing is that I suppose youve been disappointing «
»Quite from the very first of my arrival I dare say I admit I was
surprising even to myself«
»And then of course« Maria went on »I had much to do with it«
»With my being surprising «
»That will do« she laughed »if youre too delicate to call it my being
Naturally« she added »you came over more or less for surprises«
»Naturally« he valued the reminder
»But they were to have been all for you« she continued to piece it out
»and none of them for her«
Once more he stopped before her as if she had touched the point »Thats
just her difficulty that she doesnt admit surprises Its a fact that I
think describes and represents her and it falls in with what I tell you that
shes all as Ive called it fine cold thought She had to her own mind
worked the whole thing out in advance and worked it out for me as well as for
herself Whenever she has done that you see theres no room left no margin
as it were for any alteration Shes filled as full packed as tight as shell
hold and if you wish to get anything more or different either out or in «
»Youve got to make over altogether the woman herself«
»What it comes to« said Strether »is that youve got morally and
intellectually to get rid of her«
»Which would appear« Maria returned »to be practically what youve done«
But her friend threw back his head »I havent touched her She wont be
touched I see it now as Ive never done and she hangs together with a
perfection of her own« he went on »that does suggest a kind of wrong in any
change of her composition It was at any rate« he wound up »the woman herself
as you call her the whole moral and intellectual being or block that Sarah
brought me over to take or to leave«
It turned Miss Gostrey to deeper thought »Fancy having to take at the point
of the bayonet a whole moral and intellectual being or block«
»It was in fact« said Strether »what at home I had done But somehow
over there I didnt quite know it«
»One never does I suppose« Miss Gostrey concurred »realise in advance in
such a case the size as you may say of the block Little by little it looms
up It has been looming for you more and more till at last you see it all«
»I see it all« he absently echoed while his eyes might have been fixing
some particularly large iceberg in a cool blue northern sea »Its magnificent«
he then rather oddly exclaimed
But his friend who was used to this kind of inconsequence in him kept the
thread »Theres nothing so magnificent for making others feel you as to
have no imagination«
It brought him straight round »Ah there you are Its what I said last
night to Chad That he himself I mean has none«
»Then it would appear« Maria suggested »that he has after all something
in common with his mother«
»He has in common that he makes one as you say feel him And yet« he
added as if the question were interesting »one feels others too even when
they have plenty«
Miss Gostrey continued suggestive »Madame de Vionnet«
»She has plenty«
»Certainly she had quantities of old But there are different ways of
making ones self felt«
»Yes it comes no doubt to that You now «
He was benevolently going on but she wouldnt have it »Oh I dont make
myself felt so my quantity neednt be settled Yours you know« she said »is
monstrous No one has ever had so much«
It struck him for a moment »Thats what Chad also thinks«
»There you are then though it isnt for him to complain of it«
»Oh he doesnt complain of it« said Strether
»Thats all that would be wanting But apropos of what« Maria went on »did
the question come up«
»Well of his asking me what it is I gain«
She had a pause »Then as Ive asked you too it settles my case Oh you
have« she repeated »treasures of imagination«
But he had been for an instant thinking away from this and he came up in
another place »And yet Mrs Newsome its a thing to remember has imagined
did that is imagine and apparently still does horrors about what I should
have found I was booked by her vision extraordinarily intense after all
to find them and that I didnt that I couldnt that as she evidently felt I
wouldnt this evidently didnt at all as they say suit her book It was more
than she could bear That was her disappointment«
»You mean you were to have found Chad himself horrible«
»I was to have found the woman«
»Horrible«
»Found her as she imagined her« And Strether paused as if for his own
expression of it he could add no touch to that picture
His companion had meanwhile thought »She imagined stupidly so it comes to
the same thing«
»Stupidly Oh« said Strether
But she insisted »She imagined meanly«
He had it however better »It couldnt but be ignorantly«
»Well intensity with ignorance what do you want worse«
This question might have held him but he let it pass »Sarah isnt ignorant
now she keeps up the theory of the horrible«
»Ah but shes intense and that by itself will do sometimes as well If it
doesnt do in this case at any rate to deny that Maries charming it will do
at least to deny that shes good«
»What I claim is that shes good for Chad«
»You dont claim« she seemed to like it clear »that shes good for you«
But he continued without heeding »Thats what I wanted them to come out for
to see for themselves if shes bad for him«
»And now that theyve done so they wont admit that shes good even for
anything«
»They do think« Strether presently admitted »that shes on the whole about
as bad for me But theyre consistent of course inasmuch as theyve their clear
view of whats good for both of us«
»For you to begin with« Maria all responsive confined the question for
the moment »to eliminate from your existence and if possible even from your
memory the dreadful creature that I must gruesomely shadow forth for them even
more than to eliminate the distincter evil thereby a little less portentous
of the person whose confederate youve suffered yourself to become However
thats comparatively simple You can easily at the worst after all give me
up«
»I can easily at the worst after all give you up« The irony was so
obvious that it needed no care »I can easily at the worst after all even
forget you«
»Call that then workable But Mr Newsome has much more to forget How can
he do it«
»Ah there again we are Thats just what I was to have made him do just
where I was to have worked with him and helped«
She took it in silence and without attenuation as if perhaps from very
familiarity with the facts and her thought made a connexion without showing the
links »Do you remember how we used to talk at Chester and in London about my
seeing you through« She spoke as of faroff things and as if they had spent
weeks at the places she named
»Its just what you are doing«
»Ah but the worst since youve left such a margin may be still to come
You may yet break down«
»Yes I may yet break down But will you take me «
He had hesitated and she waited »Take you«
»For as long as I can bear it«
She also debated »Mr Newsome and Madame de Vionnet may as we were saying
leave town How long do you think you can bear it without them«
Strethers reply to this was at first another question »Do you mean in
order to get away from me«
Her answer had an abruptness »Dont find me rude if I say I should think
theyd want to«
He looked at her hard again seemed even for an instant to have an
intensity of thought under which his colour changed But he smiled »You mean
after what theyve done to me«
»After what she has«
At this however with a laugh he was all right again »Ah but she hasnt
done it yet«
III
He had taken the train a few days after this from a station as well as to a
station selected almost at random such days whatever should happen were
numbered and he had gone forth under the impulse artless enough no doubt
to give the whole of one of them to that French ruralism with its cool special
green into which he had hitherto looked only through the little oblong window
of the pictureframe It had been as yet for the most part but a land of fancy
for him the background of fiction the medium of art the nursery of letters
practically as distant as Greece but practically also wellnigh as consecrated
Romance could weave itself for Strethers sense out of elements mild enough
and even after what he had as he felt lately been through he could thrill a
little at the chance of seeing something somewhere that would remind him of a
certain small Lambinet that had charmed him long years before at a Boston
dealers and that he had quite absurdly never forgotten It had been offered he
remembered at a price he had been instructed to believe the lowest ever named
for a Lambinet a price he had never felt so poor as on having to recognise all
the same as beyond a dream of possibility He had dreamed had turned and
twisted possibilities for an hour it had been the only adventure of his life in
connexion with the purchase of a work of art The adventure it will be
perceived was modest but the memory beyond all reason and by some accident of
association was sweet The little Lambinet abode with him as the picture he
would have bought the particular production that had made him for the moment
overstep the modesty of nature He was quite aware that if he were to see it
again he should perhaps have a drop or a shock and he never found himself
wishing that the wheel of time would turn it up again just as he had seen it in
the marooncoloured skylighted inner shrine of Tremont Street It would be a
different thing however to see the remembered mixture resolved back into its
elements to assist at the restoration to nature of the whole faraway hour
the dusty day in Boston the background of the Fitchburg Depot of the
marooncoloured sanctum the specialgreen vision the ridiculous price the
poplars the willows the rushes the river the sunny silvery sky the shady
woody horizon
He observed in respect to his train almost no condition save that it should
stop a few times after getting out of the banlieue he threw himself on the
general amiability of the day for the hint of where to alight His theory of his
excursion was that he could alight anywhere not nearer Paris than an hours
run on catching a suggestion of the particular note required It made its
sign the suggestion weather air light colour and his mood all favouring
at the end of some eighty minutes the train pulled up just at the right spot
and he found himself getting out as securely as if to keep an appointment It
will be felt of him that he could amuse himself at his age with very small
things if it be again noted that his appointment was only with a superseded
Boston fashion He hadnt gone far without the quick confidence that it would be
quite sufficiently kept The oblong gilt frame disposed its enclosing lines the
poplars and willows the reeds and river a river of which he didnt know and
didnt want to know the name fell into a composition full of felicity
within them the sky was silver and turquoise and varnish the village on the
left was white and the church on the right was grey it was all there in short
it was what he wanted it was Tremont Street it was France it was Lambinet
Moreover he was freely walking about in it He did this last for an hour to
his hearts content making for the shady woody horizon and boring so deep into
his impression and his idleness that he might fairly have got through them again
and reached the marooncoloured wall It was a wonder no doubt that the taste
of idleness for him shouldnt need more time to sweeten but it had in fact
taken the few previous days it had been sweetening in truth ever since the
retreat of the Pococks He walked and walked as if to show himself how little he
had now to do he had nothing to do but turn off to some hillside where he might
stretch himself and hear the poplars rustle and whence in the course of an
afternoon so spent an afternoon richly suffused too with the sense of a book in
his pocket he should sufficiently command the scene to be able to pick out
just the right little rustic inn for an experiment in respect to dinner There
was a train back to Paris at 920 and he saw himself partaking at the close of
the day with the enhancements of a coarse white cloth and a sanded floor of
something fried and felicitous washed down with authentic wine after which he
might as he liked either stroll back to his station in the gloaming or propose
for the local carriole and converse with his driver a driver who naturally
wouldnt fail of a stiff clean blouse of a knitted nightcap and of the genius
of response who in fine would sit on the shafts tell him what the French
people were thinking and remind him as indeed the whole episode would
incidentally do of Maupassant Strether heard his lips for the first time in
French air as this vision assumed consistency emit sounds of expressive
intention without fear of his company He had been afraid of Chad and of Maria
and of Madame de Vionnet he had been most of all afraid of Waymarsh in whose
presence so far as they had mixed together in the light of the town he had
never without somehow paying for it aired either his vocabulary or his accent
He usually paid for it by meeting immediately afterwards Waymarshs eye
Such were the liberties with which his fancy played after he had turned off
to the hillside that did really and truly as well as most amiably await him
beneath the poplars the hillside that made him feel for a murmurous couple of
hours how happy had been his thought He had the sense of success of a finer
harmony in things nothing but what had turned out as yet according to his plan
It most of all came home to him as he lay on his back on the grass that Sarah
had really gone that his tension was really relaxed the peace diffused in
these ideas might be delusive but it hung about him none the less for the time
It fairly for half an hour sent him to sleep he pulled his straw hat over his
eyes he had bought it the day before with a reminiscence of Waymarshs and
lost himself anew in Lambinet It was as if he had found out he was tired
tired not from his walk but from that inward exercise which had known on the
whole for three months so little intermission That was it when once they
were off he had dropped this moreover was what he had dropped to and now he
was touching bottom He was kept luxuriously quiet soothed and amused by the
consciousness of what he had found at the end of his descent It was very much
what he had told Maria Gostrey he should like to stay on for the
hugelydistributed Paris of summer alternately dazzling and dusky with a
weight lifted for him off its columns and cornices and with shade and air in the
flutter of awnings as wide as avenues It was present to him without attenuation
that reaching out the day after making the remark for some proof of his
freedom he had gone that very afternoon to see Madame de Vionnet He had gone
again the next day but one and the effect of the two visits the aftersense of
the couple of hours spent with her was almost that of fulness and frequency
The brave intention of frequency so great with him from the moment of his
finding himself unjustly suspected at Woollett had remained rather theoretic
and one of the things he could muse about under his poplars was the source of
the special shyness that had still made him careful He had surely got rid of it
now this special shyness what had become of it if it hadnt precisely within
the week rubbed off
It struck him now in fact as sufficiently plain that if he had still been
careful he had been so for a reason He had really feared in his behaviour a
lapse from good faith if there was a danger of ones liking such a woman too
much ones best safety was in waiting at least till one had the right to do so
In the light of the last few days the danger was fairly vivid so that it was
proportionately fortunate that the right was likewise established It seemed to
our friend that he had on each occasion profited to the utmost by the latter
how could he have done so more he at all events asked himself than in having
immediately let her know that if it was all the same to her he preferred not
to talk about anything tiresome He had never in his life so sacrificed an
armful of high interests as in that remark he had never so prepared the way for
the comparatively frivolous as in addressing it to Madame de Vionnets
intelligence It hadnt been till later that he quite recalled how in conjuring
away everything but the pleasant he had conjured away almost all they had
hitherto talked about it was not till later even that he remembered how with
their new tone they hadnt so much as mentioned the name of Chad himself One
of the things that most lingered with him on his hillside was this delightful
facility with such a woman of arriving at a new tone he thought as he lay on
his back of all the tones she might make possible if one were to try her and
at any rate of the probability that one could trust her to fit them to
occasions He had wanted her to feel that as he was disinterested now so she
herself should be and she had showed she felt it and he had showed he was
grateful and it had been for all the world as if he were calling for the first
time They had had other but irrelevant meetings it was quite as if had they
sooner known how much they really had in common there were quantities of
comparatively dull matters they might have skipped Well they were skipping
them now even to graceful gratitude even to handsome »Dont mention it« and
it was amazing what could still come up without reference to what had been going
on between them It might have been on analysis nothing more than Shakespeare
and the musical glasses but it had served all the purpose of his appearing to
have said to her »Dont like me if its a question of liking me for anything
obvious and clumsy that Ive as they call it done for you like me well
like me hang it for anything else you choose So by the same propriety dont
be for me simply the person Ive come to know through my awkward connexion with
Chad was ever anything by the way more awkward Be for me please with all
your admirable tact and trust just whatever I may show you its a present
pleasure to me to think you« It had been a large indication to meet but if she
hadnt met it what had she done and how had their time together slipped along
so smoothly mild but not slow and melting liquefying into his happy illusion
of idleness He could recognise on the other hand that he had probably not been
without reason in his prior his restricted state for keeping an eye on his
liability to lapse from good faith
He really continued in the picture that being for himself his situation
all the rest of this rambling day so that the charm was still was indeed more
than ever upon him when toward six oclock he found himself amicably engaged
with a stout whitecapped deepvoiced woman at the door of the auberge of the
biggest village a village that affected him as a thing of whiteness blueness
and crookedness set in coppery green and that had the river flowing behind or
before it one couldnt say which at the bottom in particular of the
inngarden He had had other adventures before this had kept along the height
after shaking off slumber had admired had almost coveted another small old
church all steep roof and dim slatecolour without and all whitewash and paper
flowers within had lost his way and had found it again had conversed with
rustics who struck him perhaps a little more as men of the world than he had
expected had acquired at a bound a fearless facility in French had had as the
afternoon waned a watery bock all pale and Parisian in the café of the
furthest village which was not the biggest and had meanwhile not once
overstepped the oblong gilt frame The frame had drawn itself out for him as
much as you please but that was just his luck He had finally come down again
to the valley to keep within touch of stations and trains turning his face to
the quarter from which he had started and thus it was that he had at last
pulled up before the hostess of the Cheval Blanc who met him with a rough
readiness that was like the clatter of sabots over stones on their common
ground of a côtelette de veau à loseille and a subsequent lift He had walked
many miles and didnt know he was tired but he still knew he was amused and
even that though he had been alone all day he had never yet so struck himself
as engaged with others and in midstream of his drama It might have passed for
finished his drama with its catastrophe all but reached it had however none
the less been vivid again for him as he thus gave it its fuller chance He had
only had to be at last well out of it to feel it oddly enough still going on
For this had been all day at bottom the spell of the picture that it was
essentially more than anything else a scene and a stage that the very air of
the play was in the rustle of the willows and the tone of the sky The play and
the characters had without his knowing it till now peopled all his space for
him and it seemed somehow quite happy that they should offer themselves in the
conditions so supplied with a kind of inevitability It was as if the
conditions made them not only inevitable but so much more nearly natural and
right as that they were at least easier pleasanter to put up with The
conditions had nowhere so asserted their difference from those of Woollett as
they appeared to him to assert it in the little court of the Cheval Blanc while
he arranged with his hostess for a comfortable climax They were few and simple
scant and humble but they were the thing as he would have called it even to a
greater degree than Madame de Vionnets old high salon where the ghost of the
Empire walked The thing was the thing that implied the greatest number of other
things of the sort he had had to tackle and it was queer of course but so it
was the implication here was complete Not a single one of his observations
but somehow fell into a place in it not a breath of the cooler evening that
wasnt somehow a syllable of the text The text was simply when condensed that
in these places such things were and that if it was in them one elected to move
about one had to make ones account with what one lighted on Meanwhile at all
events it was enough that they did affect one so far as the village aspect was
concerned as whiteness crookedness and blueness set in coppery green there
being positively for that matter an outer wall of the White Horse that was
painted the most improbable shade That was part of the amusement as if to
show that the fun was harmless just as it was enough further that the picture
and the play seemed supremely to melt together in the good womans broad sketch
of what she could do for her visitors appetite He felt in short a confidence
and it was general and it was all he wanted to feel It suffered no shock even
on her mentioning that she had in fact just laid the cloth for two persons who
unlike Monsieur had arrived by the river in a boat of their own who had
asked her half an hour before what she could do for them and had then paddled
away to look at something a little further up from which promenade they would
presently return Monsieur might meanwhile if he liked pass into the garden
such as it was where she would serve him should he wish it for there were
tables and benches in plenty a bitter before his repast Here she would also
report to him on the possibility of a conveyance to his station and here at any
rate he would have the agrément of the river
It may be mentioned without delay that Monsieur had the agrément of
everything and in particular for the next twenty minutes of a small and
primitive pavilion that at the gardens edge almost overhung the water
testifying in its somewhat battered state to much fond frequentation It
consisted of little more than a platform slightly raised with a couple of
benches and a table a protecting rail and a projecting roof but it raked the
full greyblue stream which taking a turn a short distance above passed out
of sight to reappear much higher up and it was clearly in esteemed requisition
for Sundays and other feasts Strether sat there and though hungry felt at
peace the confidence that had so gathered for him deepened with the lap of the
water the ripple of the surface the rustle of the reeds on the opposite bank
the faint diffused coolness and the slight rock of a couple of small boats
attached to a rough landingplace hard by The valley on the further side was
all coppergreen level and glazed pearly sky a sky hatched across with screens
of trimmed trees which looked flat like espaliers and though the rest of the
village straggled away in the near quarter the view had an emptiness that made
one of the boats suggestive Such a river set one afloat almost before one could
take up the oars the idle play of which would be moreover the aid to the full
impression This perception went so far as to bring him to his feet but that
movement in turn made him feel afresh that he was tired and while he leaned
against a post and continued to look out he saw something that gave him a
sharper arrest
IV
What he saw was exactly the right thing a boat advancing round the bend and
containing a man who held the paddles and a lady at the stern with a pink
parasol It was suddenly as if these figures or something like them had been
wanted in the picture had been wanted more or less all day and had now drifted
into sight with the slow current on purpose to fill up the measure They came
slowly floating down evidently directed to the landingplace near their
spectator and presenting themselves to him not less clearly as the two persons
for whom his hostess was already preparing a meal For two very happy persons he
found himself straightway taking them a young man in shirtsleeves a young
woman easy and fair who had pulled pleasantly up from some other place and
being acquainted with the neighbourhood had known what this particular retreat
could offer them The air quite thickened at their approach with further
intimations the intimation that they were expert familiar frequent that
this wouldnt at all events be the first time They knew how to do it he
vaguely felt and it made them but the more idyllic though at the very moment
of the impression as happened their boat seemed to have begun to drift wide
the oarsman letting it go It had by this time none the less come much nearer
near enough for Strether to dream the lady in the stern had for some reason
taken account of his being there to watch them She had remarked on it sharply
yet her companion hadnt turned round it was in fact almost as if our friend
had felt her bid him keep still She had taken in something as a result of which
their course had wavered and it continued to waver while they just stood off
This little effect was sudden and rapid so rapid that Strethers sense of it
was separate only for an instant from a sharp start of his own He too had
within the minute taken in something taken in that he knew the lady whose
parasol shifting as if to hide her face made so fine a pink point in the
shining scene It was too prodigious a chance in a million but if he knew the
lady the gentleman who still presented his back and kept off the gentleman
the coatless hero of the idyll who had responded to her start was to match
the marvel none other than Chad
Chad and Madame de Vionnet were then like himself taking a day in the
country though it was as queer as fiction as farce that their country could
happen to be exactly his and she had been the first at recognition the first
to feel across the water the shock for it appeared to come to that of
their wonderful accident Strether became aware with this of what was taking
place that her recognition had been even stranger for the pair in the boat
that her immediate impulse had been to control it and that she was quickly and
intensely debating with Chad the risk of betrayal He saw they would show
nothing if they could feel sure he hadnt made them out so that he had before
him for a few seconds his own hesitation It was a sharp fantastic crisis that
had popped up as if in a dream and it had had only to last the few seconds to
make him feel it as quite horrible They were thus on either side trying the
other side and all for some reason that broke the stillness like some
unprovoked harsh note It seemed to him again within the limit that he had but
one thing to do to settle their common question by some sign of surprise and
joy He hereupon gave large play to these things agitating his hat and his
stick and loudly calling out a demonstration that brought him relief as soon
as he had seen it answered The boat in midstream still went a little wild
which seemed natural however while Chad turned round half springing up and
his good friend after blankness and wonder began gaily to wave her parasol
Chad dropped afresh to his paddles and the boat headed round amazement and
pleasantry filling the air meanwhile and relief as Strether continued to
fancy superseding mere violence Our friend went down to the water under this
odd impression as of violence averted the violence of their having cut him
out there in the eye of nature on the assumption that he wouldnt know it He
awaited them with a face from which he was conscious of not being able quite to
banish this idea that they would have gone on not seeing and not knowing
missing their dinner and disappointing their hostess had he himself taken a
line to match That at least was what darkened his vision for the moment
Afterwards after they had bumped at the landingplace and he had assisted their
getting ashore everything found itself sponged over by the mere miracle of the
encounter
They could so much better at last on either side treat it as a wild
extravagance of hazard that the situation was made elastic by the amount of
explanation called into play Why indeed apart from oddity the situation
should have been really stiff was a question naturally not practical at the
moment and in fact so far as we are concerned a question tackled later on
and in private only by Strether himself He was to reflect later on and in
private that it was mainly he who had explained as he had had moreover
comparatively little difficulty in doing He was to have at all events meanwhile
the worrying thought of their perhaps secretly suspecting him of having plotted
this coincidence taking such pains as might be to give it the semblance of an
accident That possibility as their imputation didnt of course bear looking
into for an instant yet the whole incident was so manifestly arrange it as
they would an awkward one that he could scarce keep disclaimers in respect to
his own presence from rising to his lips Disclaimers of intention would have
been as tactless as his presence was practically gross and the narrowest escape
they either of them had was his lucky escape in the event from making any
Nothing of the sort so far as surface and sound were involved was even in
question surface and sound all made for their common ridiculous good fortune
for the general invraisemblance of the occasion for the charming chance that
they had the others in passing ordered some food to be ready the charming
chance that he had himself not eaten the charming chance even more that their
little plans their hours their train in short from làbas would all match
for their return together to Paris The chance that was most charming of all
the chance that drew from Madame de Vionnet her clearest gayest »Comme cela se
trouve« was the announcement made to Strether after they were seated at table
the word given him by their hostess in respect to his carriage for the station
on which he might now count It settled the matter for his friends as well the
conVeyance it was all too lucky would serve for them and nothing was more
delightful than his being in a position to make the train so definite It might
have been for themselves to hear Madame de Vionnet almost unnaturally
vague a detail left to be fixed though Strether indeed was afterwards to
remember that Chad had promptly enough intervened to forestall this appearance
laughing at his companions flightiness and making the point that he had after
all in spite of the bedazzlement of a day out with her known what he was
about
Strether was to remember afterwards further that this had had for him the
effect of forming Chads almost sole intervention and indeed he was to remember
further still in subsequent meditation many things that as it were fitted
together Another of them was for instance that the wonderful womans overflow
of surprise and amusement was wholly into French which she struck him as
speaking with an unprecedented command of idiomatic turns but in which she got
as he might have said somewhat away from him taking all at once little
brilliant jumps that he could but lamely match The question of his own French
had never come up for them it was the one thing she wouldnt have permitted
it belonged for a person who had been through much to mere boredom but the
present result was odd fairly veiling her identity shifting her back into a
mere voluble class or race to the intense audibility of which he was by this
time inured When she spoke the charming slightly strange English he best knew
her by he seemed to feel her as a creature among all the millions with a
language quite to herself the real monopoly of a special shade of speech
beautifully easy for her yet of a colour and a cadence that were both
inimitable and matters of accident She came back to these things after they had
shaken down in the innparlour and knew as it were what was to become of them
it was inevitable that loud ejaculation over the prodigy of their convergence
should at last wear itself out Then it was that his impression took fuller form
the impression destined only to deepen to complete itself that they had
something to put a face upon to carry off and make the best of and that it was
she who admirably on the whole was doing this It was familiar to him of
course that they had something to put a face upon their friendship their
connexion took any amount of explaining that would have been made familiar by
his twenty minutes with Mrs Pocock if it hadnt already been so Yet his
theory as we know had bountifully been that the facts were specifically none
of his business and were over and above so far as one had to do with them
intrinsically beautiful and this might have prepared him for anything as well
as rendered him proof against mystification When he reached home that night
however he knew he had been at bottom neither prepared nor proof and since
we have spoken of what he was after his return to recall and interpret it may
as well immediately be said that his real experience of these few hours put on
in that belated vision for he scarce went to bed till morning the aspect
that is most to our purpose
He then knew more or less how he had been affected he but half knew at the
time There had been plenty to affect him even after as has been said they had
shaken down for his consciousness though muffled had its sharpest moments
during this passage a marked drop into innocent friendly Bohemia They then had
put their elbows on the table deploring the premature end of their two or three
dishes which they had tried to make up with another bottle while Chad joked a
little spasmodically perhaps even a little irrelevantly with the hostess What
it all came to had been that fiction and fable were inevitably in the air and
not as a simple term of comparison but as a result of things said also that
they were blinking it all round and that they yet neednt so much as that
have blinked it though indeed if they hadnt Strether didnt quite see what
else they could have done Strether didnt quite see that even at an hour or two
past midnight even when he had at his hotel for a long time without a light
and without undressing sat back on his bedroom sofa and stared straight before
him He was at that point of vantage in full possession to make of it all
what he could He kept making of it that there had been simply a lie in the
charming affair a lie on which one could now detached and deliberate
perfectly put ones finger It was with the lie that they had eaten and drunk
and talked and laughed that they had waited for their carriole rather
impatiently and had then got into the vehicle and sensibly subsiding driven
their three or four miles through the darkening summer night The eating and
drinking which had been a resource had had the effect of having served its
turn the talk and laughter had done as much and it was during their somewhat
tedious progress to the station during the waits there the further delays
their submission to fatigue their silences in the dim compartment of the
muchstopping train that he prepared himself for reflexions to come It had
been a performance Madame de Vionnets manner and though it had to that degree
faltered toward the end as through her ceasing to believe in it as if she had
asked herself or Chad had found a moment surreptitiously to ask her what after
all was the use a performance it had none the less quite handsomely remained
with the final fact about it that it was on the whole easier to keep up than to
abandon
From the point of view of presence of mind it had been very wonderful
indeed wonderful for readiness for beautiful assurance for the way her
decision was taken on the spot without time to confer with Chad without time
for anything Their only conference could have been the brief instants in the
boat before they confessed to recognising the spectator on the bank for they
hadnt been alone together a moment since and must have communicated all in
silence It was a part of the deep impression for Strether and not the least of
the deep interest that they could so communicate that Chad in particular
could let her know he left it to her He habitually left things to others as
Strether was so well aware and it in fact came over our friend in these
meditations that there had been as yet no such vivid illustration of his famous
knowing how to live It was as if he had humoured her to the extent of letting
her lie without correction almost as if really he would be coming round in
the morning to set the matter as between Strether and himself right Of course
he couldnt quite come it was a case in which a man was obliged to accept the
womans version even when fantastic if she had with more flurry than she
cared to show elected as the phrase was to represent that they had left Paris
that morning and with no design but of getting back within the day if she had
so sizedup in the Woollett phrase their necessity she knew best her own
measure There were things all the same it was impossible to blink and which
made this measure an odd one the too evident fact for instance that she hadnt
started out for the day dressed and hatted and shod and even for that matter
pink parasold as she had been in the boat From what did the drop in her
assurance proceed as the tension increased from what did this slightly baffled
ingenuity spring but from her consciousness of not presenting as night closed
in with not so much as a shawl to wrap her round an appearance that matched
her story She admitted that she was cold but only to blame her imprudence
which Chad suffered her to give such account of as she might Her shawl and
Chads overcoat and her other garments and his those they had each worn the
day before were at the place best known to themselves a quiet retreat
enough no doubt at which they had been spending the twentyfour hours to
which they had fully meant to return that evening from which they had so
remarkably swum into Strethers ken and the tacit repudiation of which had been
thus the essence of her comedy Strether saw how she had perceived in a flash
that they couldnt quite look to going back there under his nose though
honestly as he gouged deeper into the matter he was somewhat surprised as
Chad likewise had perhaps been at the uprising of this scruple He seemed even
to divine that she had entertained it rather for Chad than for herself and
that as the young man had lacked the chance to enlighten her she had had to go
on with it he meanwhile mistaking her motive
He was rather glad none the less that they had in point of fact not parted
at the Cheval Blanc that he hadnt been reduced to giving them his blessing for
an idyllic retreat down the river He had had in the actual case to makebelieve
more than he liked but this was nothing it struck him to what the other event
would have required Could he literally quite have faced the other event
Would he have been capable of making the best of it with them This was what he
was trying to do now but with the advantage of his being able to give more time
to it a good deal counteracted by his sense of what over and above the central
fact itself he had to swallow It was the quantity of makebelieve involved and
so vividly exemplified that most disagreed with his spiritual stomach He moved
however from the consideration of that quantity to say nothing of the
consciousness of that organ back to the other feature of the show the deep
deep truth of the intimacy revealed That was what in his vain vigil he
oftenest reverted to intimacy at such a point was like that and what in the
world else would one have wished it to be like It was all very well for him to
feel the pity of its being so much like lying he almost blushed in the dark
for the way he had dressed the possibility in vagueness as a little girl might
have dressed her doll He had made them and by no fault of their own
momentarily pull it for him the possibility out of this vagueness and must he
not therefore take it now as they had had simply with whatever thin
attenuations to give it to him The very question it may be added made him
feel lonely and cold There was the element of the awkward all round but Chad
and Madame de Vionnet had at least the comfort that they could talk it over
together With whom could he talk of such things unless indeed always at
almost any stage with Maria He foresaw that Miss Gostrey would come again into
requisition on the morrow though it wasnt to be denied that he was already a
little afraid of her »What on earth thats what I want to know now had you
then supposed« He recognised at last that he had really been trying all along
to suppose nothing Verily verily his labour had been lost He found himself
supposing innumerable and wonderful things
Book Twelfth
I
Strether couldnt have said he had during the previous hours definitely expected
it yet when later on that morning though no later indeed than for his
coming forth at ten oclock he saw the concierge produce on his approach a
petit bleu delivered since his letters had been sent up he recognised the
appearance as the first symptom of a sequel He then knew he had been thinking
of some early sign from Chad as more likely after all than not and this would
be precisely the early sign He took it so for granted that he opened the petit
bleu just where he had stopped in the pleasant cool draught of the
portecochère only curious to see where the young man would at such a
juncture break out His curiosity however was more than gratified the small
missive whose gummed edge he had detached without attention to the address not
being from the young man at all but from the person whom the case gave him on
the spot as still more worth while Worth while or not he went round to the
nearest telegraphoffice the big one on the Boulevard with a directness that
almost confessed to a fear of the danger of delay He might have been thinking
that if he didnt go before he could think he wouldnt perhaps go at all He at
any rate kept in the lower sidepocket of his morning coat a very deliberate
hand on his blue missive crumpling it up rather tenderly than harshly He wrote
a reply on the Boulevard also in the form of a petit bleu which was quickly
done under pressure of the place inasmuch as like Madame de Vionnets own
communication it consisted of the fewest words She had asked him if he could
do her the very great kindness of coming to see her that evening at halfpast
nine and he answered as if nothing were easier that he would present himself
at the hour she named She had added a line of postscript to the effect that
she would come to him elsewhere and at his own hour if he preferred but he took
no notice of this feeling that if he saw her at all half the value of it would
be in seeing her where he had already seen her best He mightnt see her at all
that was one of the reflexions he made after writing and before he dropped his
closed card into the box he mightnt see any one at all any more at all he
might make an end as well now as ever leaving things as they were since he was
doubtless not to leave them better and taking his way home so far as should
appear that a home remained to him This alternative was for a few minutes so
sharp that if he at last did deposit his missive it was perhaps because the
pressure of the place had an effect
There was none other however than the common and constant pressure
familiar to our friend under the rubric of Postes et Télégraphes the something
in the air of these establishments the vibration of the vast strange life of
the town the influence of the types the performers concocting their messages
the little prompt Paris women arranging pretexting goodness knew what driving
the dreadful needle pointed public pen at the dreadful sandstrewn public
table implements that symbolised for Strethers too interpretative innocence
something more acute in manners more sinister in morals more fierce in the
national life After he had put in his paper he had ranged himself he was
really amused to think on the side of the fierce the sinister the acute He
was carrying on a correspondence across the great city quite in the key of the
Postes et Télégraphes in general and it was fairly as if the acceptance of that
fact had come from something in his state that sorted with the occupation of his
neighbours He was mixed up with the typical tale of Paris and so were they
poor things how could they all together help being They were no worse than
he in short and he no worse than they if queerly enough no better and at
all events he had settled his hash so that he went out to begin from that
moment his day of waiting The great settlement was as he felt in his
preference for seeing his correspondent in her own best conditions That was
part of the typical tale the part most significant in respect to himself He
liked the place she lived in the picture that each time squared itself large
and high and clear around her every occasion of seeing it was a pleasure of a
different shade Yet what precisely was he doing with shades of pleasure now
and why hadnt he properly and logically compelled her to commit herself to
whatever of disadvantage and penalty the situation might throw up He might have
proposed as for Sarah Pocock the cold hospitality of his own salon de lecture
in which the chill of Sarahs visit seemed still to abide and shades of pleasure
were dim he might have suggested a stone bench in the dusty Tuileries or a
penny chair at the back part of the Champs Elysées These things would have been
a trifle stern and sternness alone now wouldnt be sinister An instinct in him
cast about for some form of discipline in which they might meet some
awkwardness they would suffer from some danger or at least some grave
inconvenience they would incur This would give a sense which the spirit
required rather ached and sighed in the absence of that somebody was paying
something somewhere and somehow that they were at least not all floating
together on the silver stream of impunity Just instead of that to go and see
her late in the evening as if for all the world well as if he were as much
in the swim as anybody else this had as little as possible in common with the
penal form
Even when he had felt that objection melt away however the practical
difference was small the long stretch of his interval took the colour it would
and if he lived on thus with the sinister from hour to hour it proved an easier
thing than one might have supposed in advance He reverted in thought to his old
tradition the one he had been brought up on and which even so many years of
life had but little worn away the notion that the state of the wrongdoer or at
least this persons happiness presented some special difficulty What struck
him now rather was the ease of it for nothing in truth appeared easier It was
an ease he himself fairly tasted of for the rest of the day giving himself
quite up not so much as trying to dress it out in any particular whatever as
a difficulty not after all going to see Maria which would have been in a
manner a result of such dressing only idling lounging smoking sitting in the
shade drinking lemonade and consuming ices The day had turned to heat and
eventual thunder and he now and again went back to his hotel to find that Chad
hadnt been there He hadnt yet struck himself since leaving Woollett so much
as a loafer though there had been times when he believed himself touching
bottom This was a deeper depth than any and with no foresight scarcely with a
care as to what he should bring up He almost wondered if he didnt look
demoralised and disreputable he had the fanciful vision as he sat and smoked
of some accidental some motived return of the Pococks who would be passing
along the Boulevard and would catch this view of him They would have
distinctly on his appearance every ground for scandal But fate failed to
administer even that sternness the Pococks never passed and Chad made no sign
Strether meanwhile continued to hold off from Miss Gostrey keeping her till
tomorrow so that by evening his irresponsibility his impunity his luxury
had become there was no other word for them immense
Between nine and ten at last in the high clear picture he was moving in
these days as in a gallery from clever canvas to clever canvas he drew a
long breath it was so presented to him from the first that the spell of his
luxury wouldnt be broken He wouldnt have that is to become responsible
this was admirably in the air she had sent for him precisely to let him feel
it so that he might go on with the comfort comfort already established hadnt
it been of regarding his ordeal the ordeal of the weeks of Sarahs stay and
of their climax as safely traversed and left behind him Didnt she just wish
to assure him that she now took it all and so kept it that he was absolutely
not to worry any more was only to rest on his laurels and continue generously
to help her The light in her beautiful formal room was dim though it would do
as everything would always do the hot night had kept out lamps but there was a
pair of clusters of candles that glimmered over the chimneypiece like the tall
tapers of an altar The windows were all open their redundant hangings swaying
a little and he heard once more from the empty court the small plash of the
fountain From beyond this and as from a great distance beyond the court
beyond the corps de logis forming the front came as if excited and exciting
the vague voice of Paris Strether had all along been subject to sudden gusts of
fancy in connexion with such matters as these odd starts of the historic
sense suppositions and divinations with no warrant but their intensity Thus
and so on the eve of the great recorded dates the days and nights of
revolution the sounds had come in the omens the beginnings broken out They
were the smell of revolution the smell of the public temper or perhaps simply
the smell of blood
It was at present queer beyond words subtle he would have risked saying
that such suggestions should keep crossing the scene but it was doubtless the
effect of the thunder in the air which had hung about all day without release
His hostess was dressed as for thunderous times and it fell in with the kind of
imagination we have just attributed to him that she should be in simplest
coolest white of a character so oldfashioned if he were not mistaken that
Madame Roland must on the scaffold have worn something like it This effect was
enhanced by a small black fichu or scarf of crape or gauze disposed quaintly
round her bosom and now completing as by a mystic touch the pathetic the noble
analogy Poor Strether in fact scarce knew what analogy was evoked for him as
the charming woman receiving him and making him as she could do such things
at once familiarly and gravely welcome moved over her great room with her image
almost repeated in its polished floor which had been fully bared for summer
The associations of the place all felt again the gleam here and there in the
subdued light of glass and gilt and parquet with the quietness of her own note
as the centre these things were at first as delicate as if they had been
ghostly and he was sure in a moment that whatever he should find he had come
for it wouldnt be for an impression that had previously failed him That
conviction held him from the outset and seeming singularly to simplify
certified to him that the objects about would help him would really help them
both No he might never see them again this was only too probably the last
time and he should certainly see nothing in the least degree like them He
should soon be going to where such things were not and it would be a small
mercy for memory for fancy to have in that stress a loaf on the shelf He
knew in advance he should look back on the perception actually sharpest with him
as on the view of something old old old the oldest thing he had ever
personally touched and he also knew even while he took his companion in as the
feature among features that memory and fancy couldnt help being enlisted for
her She might intend what she would but this was beyond anything she could
intend with things from far back tyrannies of history facts of type values
as the painters said of expression all working for her and giving her the
supreme chance the chance of the happy the really luxurious few the chance
on a great occasion to be natural and simple She had never with him been
more so or if it was the perfection of art it would never and that came to
the same thing be proved against her
What was truly wonderful was her way of differing so from time to time
without detriment to her simplicity Caprices he was sure she felt were before
anything else bad manners and that judgement in her was by itself a thing
making more for safety of intercourse than anything that in his various own past
intercourses he had had to reckon on If therefore her presence was now quite
other than the one she had shown him the night before there was nothing of
violence in the change it was all harmony and reason It gave him a mild deep
person whereas he had had on the occasion to which their interview was a direct
reference a person committed to movement and surface and abounding in them but
she was in either character more remarkable for nothing than for her bridging of
intervals and this now fell in with what he understood he was to leave to her
The only thing was that if he was to leave it all to her why exactly had she
sent for him He had had vaguely in advance his explanation his view of the
probability of her wishing to set something right to deal in some way with the
fraud so lately practised on his presumed credulity Would she attempt to carry
it further or would she blot it out Would she throw over it some more or less
happy colour or would she do nothing about it at all He perceived soon enough
at least that however reasonable she might be she wasnt vulgarly confused
and it herewith pressed upon him that their eminent lie Chads and hers was
simply after all such an inevitable tribute to good taste as he couldnt have
wished them not to render Away from them during his vigil he had seemed to
wince at the amount of comedy involved whereas in his present posture he could
only ask himself how he should enjoy any attempt from her to take the comedy
back He shouldnt enjoy it at all but once more and yet once more he could
trust her That is he could trust her to make deception right As she presented
things the ugliness goodness knew why went out of them none the less too
that she could present them with an art of her own by not so much as touching
them She let the matter at all events lie where it was where the previous
twentyfour hours had placed it appearing merely to circle about it
respectfully tenderly almost piously while she took up another question
She knew she hadnt really thrown dust in his eyes this the previous
night before they separated had practically passed between them and as she
had sent for him to see what the difference thus made for him might amount to
so he was conscious at the end of five minutes that he had been tried and
tested She had settled with Chad after he left them that she would for her
satisfaction assure herself of this quantity and Chad had as usual let her
have her way Chad was always letting people have their way when he felt that it
would somehow turn his wheel for him it somehow always did turn his wheel
Strether felt oddly enough before these facts freshly and consentingly
passive they again so rubbed it into him that the couple thus fixing his
attention were intimate that his intervention had absolutely aided and
intensified their intimacy and that in fine he must accept the consequence of
that He had absolutely become himself with his perceptions and his mistakes
his concessions and his reserves the droll mixture as it must seem to them of
his braveries and his fears the general spectacle of his art and his innocence
almost an added link and certainly a common priceless ground for them to meet
upon It was as if he had been hearing their very tone when she brought out a
reference that was comparatively straight »The last twice that youve been
here you know I never asked you« she said with an abrupt transition they
had been pretending before this to talk simply of the charm of yesterday and of
the interest of the country they had seen The effort was confessedly vain not
for such talk had she invited him and her impatient reminder was of their
having done for it all the needful on his coming to her after Sarahs flight
What she hadnt asked him then was to state to her where and how he stood for
her she had been resting on Chads report of their midnight hour together in
the Boulevard Malesherbes The thing therefore she at present desired was
ushered in by this recall of the two occasions on which disinterested and
merciful she hadnt worried him Tonight truly she would worry him and this
was her appeal to him to let her risk it He wasnt to mind if she bored him a
little she had behaved after all hadnt she so awfully awfully well
II
»Oh youre all right youre all right« he almost impatiently declared his
impatience being moreover not for her pressure but for her scruple More and
more distinct to him was the tune to which she would have had the matter out
with Chad more and more vivid for him the idea that she had been nervous as to
what he might be able to stand Yes it had been a question if he had stood what
the scene on the river had given him and though the young man had doubtless
opined in favour of his recuperation her own last word must have been that she
should feel easier in seeing for herself That was it unmistakeably she was
seeing for herself What he could stand was thus in these moments in the
balance for Strether who reflected as he became fully aware of it that he
must properly brace himself He wanted fully to appear to stand all he might
and there was a certain command of the situation for him in this very wish not
to look too much at sea She was ready with everything but so sufficiently
was he that is he was at one point the more prepared of the two inasmuch as
for all her cleverness she couldnt produce on the spot and it was surprising
an account of the motive of her note He had the advantage that his
pronouncing her all right gave him for an enquiry »May I ask delighted as Ive
been to come if youve wished to say something special« He spoke as if she
might have seen he had been waiting for it not indeed with discomfort but
with natural interest Then he saw that she was a little taken aback was even
surprised herself at the detail she had neglected the only one ever yet
having somehow assumed he would know would recognise would leave some things
not to be said She looked at him however an instant as if to convey that if
he wanted them all
»Selfish and vulgar thats what I must seem to you Youve done everything
for me and here I am as if I were asking for more But it isnt« she went on
»because Im afraid though I am of course afraid as a woman in my position
always is I mean it isnt because one lives in terror it isnt because of
that one is selfish for Im ready to give you my word tonight that I dont
care dont care what still may happen and what I may lose I dont ask you to
raise your little finger for me again nor do I wish so much as to mention to
you what weve talked of before either my danger or my safety or his mother
or his sister or the girl he may marry or the fortune he may make or miss or
the right or the wrong of any kind he may do If after the help one has had
from you one cant either take care of ones self or simply hold ones tongue
one must renounce all claim to be an object of interest Its in the name of
what I do care about that Ive tried still to keep hold of you How can I be
indifferent« she asked »to how I appear to you« And as he found himself
unable immediately to say »Why if youre going need you after all Is it
impossible you should stay on so that one maynt lose you«
»Impossible I should live with you here instead of going home«
»Not with us if you object to that but near enough to us somewhere for
us to see you well« she beautifully brought out »when we feel we must How
shall we not sometimes feel it Ive wanted to see you often when I couldnt«
she pursued »all these last weeks How shant I then miss you now with the
sense of your being gone forever« Then as if the straightness of this appeal
taking him unprepared had visibly left him wondering »Where is your home
moreover now what has become of it Ive made a change in your life I know I
have Ive upset everything in your mind as well in your sense of what shall
I call it all the decencies and possibilities It gives me a kind of
detestation « She pulled up short
Oh but he wanted to hear »Detestation of what«
»Of everything of life«
»Ah thats too much« he laughed »or too little«
»Too little precisely« she was eager »What I hate is myself when I
think that one has to take so much to be happy out of the lives of others and
that one isnt happy even then One does it to cheat ones self and to stop
ones mouth but thats only at the best for a little The wretched self is
always there always making one somehow a fresh anxiety What it comes to is
that its not that its never a happiness any happiness at all to take The
only safe thing is to give Its what plays you least false« Interesting
touching strikingly sincere as she let these things come from her she yet
puzzled and troubled him so fine was the quaver of her quietness He felt what
he had felt before with her that there was always more behind what she showed
and more and more again behind that »You know so at least« she added »where
you are«
»You ought to know it indeed then for isnt what youve been giving exactly
what has brought us together this way Youve been making as Ive so fully let
you know Ive felt« Strether said »the most precious present Ive ever seen
made and if you cant sit down peacefully on that performance you are no
doubt born to torment yourself But you ought« he wound up »to be easy«
»And not trouble you any more no doubt not thrust on you even the wonder
and the beauty of what Ive done only let you regard our business as over and
well over and see you depart in a peace that matches my own No doubt no
doubt no doubt« she nervously repeated »all the more that I dont really
pretend I believe you couldnt for yourself not have done what you have I
dont pretend you feel yourself victimised for this evidently is the way you
live and its what were agreed is the best way Yes as you say« she
continued after a moment »I ought to be easy and rest on my work Well then
here am I doing so I am easy Youll have it for your last impression When is
it you say you go« she asked with a quick change
He took some time to reply his last impression was more and more so mixed
a one It produced in him a vague disappointment a drop that was deeper even
than the fall of his elation the previous night The good of what he had done
if he had done so much wasnt there to enliven him quite to the point that
would have been ideal for a grand gay finale Women were thus endlessly
absorbent and to deal with them was to walk on water What was at bottom the
matter with her embroider as she might and disclaim as she might what was at
bottom the matter with her was simply Chad himself It was of Chad she was after
all renewedly afraid the strange strength of her passion was the very strength
of her fear she clung to him Lambert Strether as to a source of safety she
had tested and generous graceful truthful as she might try to be exquisite as
she was she dreaded the term of his being within reach With this sharpest
perception yet it was like a chill in the air to him it was almost appalling
that a creature so fine could be by mysterious forces a creature so exploited
For at the end of all things they were mysterious she had but made Chad what he
was so why could she think she had made him infinite She had made him better
she had made him best she had made him anything one would but it came to our
friend with supreme queerness that he was none the less only Chad Strether had
the sense that he a little had made him too his high appreciation had at it
were consecrated her work The work however admirable was nevertheless of the
strict human order and in short it was marvellous that the companion of mere
earthly joys of comforts aberrations however one classed them within the
common experience should be so transcendently prized It might have made
Strether hot or shy as such secrets of others brought home sometimes do make
us but he was held there by something so hard that it was fairly grim This was
not the discomposure of last night that had quite passed such discomposures
were a detail the real coercion was to see a man ineffably adored There it was
again it took women it took women if to deal with them was to walk on water
what wonder that the water rose And it had never surely risen higher than round
this woman He presently found himself taking a long look from her and the next
thing he knew he had uttered all his thought »Youre afraid for your life«
It drew out her long look and he soon enough saw why A spasm came into her
face the tears she had already been unable to hide overflowed at first in
silence and then as the sound suddenly comes from a child quickened to gasps
to sobs She sat and covered her face with her hands giving up all attempt at a
manner »Its how you see me its how you see me« she caught her breath with
it »and its as I am and as I must take myself and of course its no
matter« Her emotion was at first so incoherent that he could only stand there
at a loss stand with his sense of having upset her though of having done it by
the truth He had to listen to her in a silence that he made no immediate effort
to attenuate feeling her doubly woeful amid all her dim diffused elegance
consenting to it as he had consented to the rest and even conscious of some
vague inward irony in the presence of such a fine free range of bliss and bale
He couldnt say it was not no matter for he was serving her to the end he now
knew anyway quite as if what he thought of her had nothing to do with it It
was actually moreover as if he didnt think of her at all as if he could think
of nothing but the passion mature abysmal pitiful she represented and the
possibilities she betrayed She was older for him tonight visibly less exempt
from the touch of time but she was as much as ever the finest and subtlest
creature the happiest apparition it had been given him in all his years to
meet and yet he could see her there as vulgarly troubled in very truth as a
maidservant crying for her young man The only thing was that she judged herself
as the maidservant wouldnt the weakness of which wisdom too the dishonour of
which judgement seemed but to sink her lower Her collapse however no doubt
was briefer and she had in a manner recovered herself before he intervened »Of
course Im afraid for my life But thats nothing It isnt that«
He was silent a little longer as if thinking what it might be »Theres
something I have in mind that I can still do«
But she threw off at last with a sharp sad headshake drying her eyes what
he could still do »I dont care for that Of course as Ive said youre
acting in your wonderful way for yourself and whats for yourself is no more
my business though I may reach out unholy hands so clumsily to touch it than
if it were something in Timbuctoo Its only that you dont snub me as youve
had fifty chances to do its only your beautiful patience that makes one
forget ones manners In spite of your patience all the same« she went on
»youd do anything rather than be with us here even if that were possible
Youd do everything for us but be mixed up with us which is a statement you
can easily answer to the advantage of your own manners You can say Whats the
use of talking of things that at the best are impossible What is of course the
use Its only my little madness Youd talk if you were tormented And I dont
mean now about him Oh for him « Positively strangely bitterly as it seemed
to Strether she gave him for the moment away »You dont care what I think of
you but I happen to care what you think of me And what you might« she added
»What you perhaps even did«
He gained time »What I did «
»Did think before Before this Didnt you think «
But he had already stopped her »I didnt think anything I never think a
step further than Im obliged to«
»Thats perfectly false I believe« she returned »except that you may no
doubt often pull up when things become too ugly or even Ill say to save you
a protest too beautiful At any rate even so far as its true weve thrust on
you appearances that youve had to take in and that have therefore made your
obligation Ugly or beautiful it doesnt matter what we call them you were
getting on without them and thats where were detestable We bore you thats
where we are And we may well for what weve cost you All you can do now is
not to think at all And I who should have liked to seem to you well
sublime«
He could only after a moment reecho Miss Barrace »Youre wonderful«
»Im old and abject and hideous« she went on as without hearing him
»Abject above all Or old above all Its when ones old that its worst I
dont care what becomes of it let what will there it is Its a doom I know
it you cant see it more than I do myself Things have to happen as they will«
With which she came back again to what face to face with him had so quite
broken down »Of course you wouldnt even if possible and no matter what may
happen to you be near us But think of me think of me « She exhaled it into
air
He took refuge in repeating something he had already said and that she had
made nothing of »Theres something I believe I can still do« And he put his
hand out for goodbye
She again made nothing of it she went on with her insistence »That wont
help you Theres nothing to help you«
»Well it may help you« he said
She shook her head »Theres not a grain of certainty in my future for the
only certainty is that I shall be the loser in the end«
She hadnt taken his hand but she moved with him to the door »Thats
cheerful« he laughed »for your benefactor«
»Whats cheerful for me« she replied »is that we might you and I have
been friends Thats it thats it You see how as I say I want everything
Ive wanted you too«
»Ah but youve had me« he declared at the door with an emphasis that made
an end
III
His purpose had been to see Chad the next day and he had prefigured seeing him
by an early call having in general never stood on ceremony in respect to visits
at the Boulevard Malesherbes It had been more often natural for him to go there
than for Chad to come to the small hotel the attractions of which were scant
yet it nevertheless just now at the eleventh hour did suggest itself to
Strether to begin by giving the young man a chance It struck him that in the
inevitable course Chad would be round as Waymarsh used to say Waymarsh who
already somehow seemed long ago He hadnt come the day before because it had
been arranged between them that Madame de Vionnet should see their friend first
but now that this passage had taken place he would present himself and their
friend wouldnt have long to wait Strether assumed he became aware on this
reasoning that the interesting parties to the arrangement would have met
betimes and that the more interesting of the two as she was after all would
have communicated to the other the issue of her appeal Chad would know without
delay that his mothers messenger had been with her and though it was perhaps
not quite easy to see how she could qualify what had occurred he would at least
have been sufficiently advised to feel he could go on The day however
brought early or late no word from him and Strether felt as a result of
this that a change had practically come over their intercourse It was perhaps
a premature judgement or it only meant perhaps how could he tell that the
wonderful pair he protected had taken up again together the excursion he had
accidentally checked They might have gone back to the country and gone back
but with a long breath drawn that indeed would best mark Chads sense that
reprobation hadnt rewarded Madame de Vionnets request for an interview At the
end of the twentyfour hours at the end of the fortyeight there was still no
overture so that Strether filled up the time as he had so often filled it
before by going to see Miss Gostrey
He proposed amusements to her he felt expert now in proposing amusements
and he had thus for several days an odd sense of leading her about Paris of
driving her in the Bois of showing her the penny steamboats those from which
the breeze of the Seine was to be best enjoyed that might have belonged to a
kindly uncle doing the honours of the capital to an intelligent niece from the
country He found means even to take her to shops she didnt know or that she
pretended she didnt while she on her side was like the country maiden all
passive modest and grateful going in fact so far as to emulate rusticity in
occasional fatigues and bewilderments Strether described these vague
proceedings to himself described them even to her as a happy interlude the
sign of which was that the companions said for the time no further word about
the matter they had talked of to satiety He proclaimed satiety at the outset
and she quickly took the hint as docile both in this and in everything else as
the intelligent obedient niece He told her as yet nothing of his late adventure
for as an adventure it now ranked with him he pushed the whole business
temporarily aside and found his interest in the fact of her beautiful assent
She left questions unasked she who for so long had been all questions she
gave herself up to him with an understanding of which mere mute gentleness might
have seemed the sufficient expression She knew his sense of his situation had
taken still another step of that he was quite aware but she conveyed that
whatever had thus happened for him it was thrown into the shade by what was
happening for herself This though it mightnt to a detached spirit have
seemed much was the major interest and she met it with a new directness of
response measuring it from hour to hour with her grave hush of acceptance
Touched as he had so often been by her before he was for his part too touched
afresh all the more that though he could be duly aware of the principle of his
own mood he couldnt be equally so of the principle of hers He knew that is
in a manner knew roughly and resignedly what he himself was hatching
whereas he had to take the chance of what he called to himself Marias
calculations It was all he needed that she liked him enough for what they were
doing and even should they do a good deal more would still like him enough for
that the essential freshness of a relation so simple was a cool bath to the
soreness produced by other relations These others appeared to him now horribly
complex they bristled with fine points points all unimaginable beforehand
points that pricked and drew blood a fact that gave to an hour with his present
friend on a bateaumouche or in the afternoon shade of the Champs Elysées
something of the innocent pleasure of handling rounded ivory His relation with
Chad personally from the moment he had got his point of view had been of the
simplest yet this also struck him as bristling after a third and a fourth
blank day had passed It was as if at last however his care for such indications
had dropped there came a fifth blank day and he ceased to enquire or to heed
They now took on to his fancy Miss Gostrey and he the image of the Babes
in the Wood they could trust the merciful elements to let them continue at
peace He had been great already as he knew at postponements but he had only
to get afresh into the rhythm of one to feel its fine attraction It amused him
to say to himself that he might for all the world have been going to die die
resignedly the scene was filled for him with so deep a deathbed hush so
melancholy a charm That meant the postponement of everything else which made
so for the quiet lapse of life and the postponement in especial of the
reckoning to come unless indeed the reckoning to come were to be one and the
same thing with extinction It faced him the reckoning over the shoulder of
much interposing experience which also faced him and one would float to it
doubtless duly through these caverns of Kubla Khan It was really behind
everything it hadnt merged in what he had done his final appreciation of what
he had done his appreciation on the spot would provide it with its main
sharpness The spot so focussed was of course Woollett and he was to see at
the best what Woollett would be with everything there changed for him Wouldnt
that revelation practically amount to the windup of his career Well the
summers end would show his suspense had meanwhile exactly the sweetness of
vain delay and he had with it we should mention other pastimes than Marias
company plenty of separate musings in which his luxury failed him but at one
point He was well in port the outer sea behind him and it was only a matter
of getting ashore There was a question that came and went for him however as
he rested against the side of his ship and it was a little to get rid of the
obsession that he prolonged his hours with Miss Gostrey It was a question about
himself but it could only be settled by seeing Chad again it was indeed his
principal reason for wanting to see Chad After that it wouldnt signify it
was a ghost that certain words would easily lay to rest Only the young man must
be there to take the words Once they were taken he wouldnt have a question
left none that is in connexion with this particular affair It wouldnt then
matter even to himself that he might now have been guilty of speaking because of
what he had forfeited That was the refinement of his supreme scruple he
wished so to leave what he had forfeited out of account He wished not to do
anything because he had missed something else because he was sore or sorry or
impoverished because he was maltreated or desperate he wished to do everything
because he was lucid and quiet just the same for himself on all essential
points as he had ever been Thus it was that while he virtually hung about for
Chad he kept mutely putting it »Youve been chucked old boy but what has that
to do with it« It would have sickened him to feel vindictive
These tints of feeling indeed were doubtless but the irridescence of his
idleness and they were presently lost in a new light from Maria She had a
fresh fact for him before the week was out and she practically met him with it
on his appearing one night He hadnt on this day seen her but had planned
presenting himself in due course to ask her to dine with him somewhere out of
doors on one of the terraces in one of the gardens of which the Paris of
summer was profuse It had then come on to rain so that disconcerted he
changed his mind dining alone at home a little stuffily and stupidly and
waiting on her afterwards to make up his loss He was sure within a minute that
something had happened it was so in the air of the rich little room that he had
scarcely to name his thought Softly lighted the whole colour of the place
with its vague values was in cool fusion an effect that made the visitor
stand for a little agaze It was as if in doing so now he had felt a recent
presence his recognition of the passage of which his hostess in turn divined
She had scarcely to say it »Yes she has been here and this time I received
her« It wasnt till a minute later that she added »There being as I
understand you no reason now «
»None for your refusing«
»No if youve done what youve had to do«
»Ive certainly so far done it« Strether said »as that you neednt fear
the effect or the appearance of coming between us Theres nothing between us
now but what we ourselves have put there and not an inch of room for anything
else whatever Therefore youre only beautifully with us as always though
doubtless now if she has talked to you rather more with us than less Of
course if she came« he added »it was to talk to you«
»It was to talk to me« Maria returned on which he was further sure that
she was practically in possession of what he himself hadnt yet told her He was
even sure she was in possession of things he himself couldnt have told for the
consciousness of them was now all in her face and accompanied there with a shade
of sadness that marked in her the close of all uncertainties It came out for
him more than ever yet that she had had from the first a knowledge she believed
him not to have had a knowledge the sharp acquisition of which might be
destined to make a difference for him The difference for him might not
inconceivably be an arrest of his independence and a change in his attitude in
other words a revulsion in favour of the principles of Woollett She had really
prefigured the possibility of a shock that would send him swinging back to Mrs
Newsome He hadnt it was true week after week shown signs of receiving it
but the possibility had been none the less in the air What Maria accordingly
had had now to take in was that the shock had descended and that he hadnt all
the same swung back He had grown clear in a flash on a point long since
settled for herself but no reapproximation to Mrs Newsome had occurred in
consequence Madame de Vionnet had by her visit held up the torch to these
truths and what now lingered in poor Marias face was the somewhat smoky light
of the scene between them If the light however wasnt as we have hinted the
glow of joy the reasons for this also were perhaps discernible to Strether even
through the blur cast over them by his natural modesty She had held herself for
months with a firm hand she hadnt interfered on any chance and chances were
specious enough that she might interfere to her profit She had turned her
back on the dream that Mrs Newsomes rupture their friends forfeiture the
engagement the relation itself broken beyond all mending might furnish forth
her advantage and to stay her hand from promoting these things she had on
private difficult but rigid lines played strictly fair She couldnt
therefore but feel that though as the end of all the facts in question had
been stoutly confirmed her ground for personal for what might have been called
interested elation remained rather vague Strether might easily have made out
that she had been asking herself in the hours she had just sat through if
there were still for her or were only not a fair shade of uncertainty Let us
hasten to add however that what he at first made out on this occasion he also
at first kept to himself He only asked what in particular Madame de Vionnet had
come for and as to this his companion was ready
»She wants tidings of Mr Newsome whom she appears not to have seen for
some days«
»Then she hasnt been away with him again«
»She seemed to think« Maria answered »that he might have gone away with
you«
»And did you tell her I know nothing of him«
She had her indulgent headshake »Ive known nothing of what you know I
could only tell her Id ask you«
»Then Ive not seen him for a week and of course Ive wondered« His
wonderment showed at this moment as sharper but he presently went on »Still I
dare say I can put my hand on him Did she strike you« he asked »as anxious«
»Shes always anxious«
»After all Ive done for her« And he had one of the last flickers of his
occasional mild mirth »To think that was just what I came out to prevent«
She took it up but to reply »You dont regard him then as safe«
»I was just going to ask you how in that respect you regard Madame de
Vionnet«
She looked at him a little »What woman was ever safe She told me« she
added and it was as if at the touch of the connexion »of your extraordinary
meeting in the country After that à quoi se fier«
»It was as an accident in all the possible or impossible chapter«
Strether conceded »amazing enough But still but still «
»But still she didnt mind«
»She doesnt mind anything«
»Well then as you dont either we may all sink to rest«
He appeared to agree with her but he had his reservation »I do mind Chads
disappearance«
»Oh youll get him back But now you know« she said »why I went to
Mentone« He had sufficiently let her see that he had by this time gathered
things together but there was nature in her wish to make them clearer still »I
didnt want you to put it to me«
»To put it to you «
»The question of what you were at last a week ago to see for yourself I
didnt want to have to lie for her I felt that to be too much for me A man of
course is always expected to do it to do it I mean for a woman but not a
woman for another woman unless perhaps on the titfortat principle as an
indirect way of protecting herself I dont need protection so that I was free
to funk you simply to dodge your test The responsibility was too much for me
I gained time and when I came back the need of a test had blown over«
Strether thought of it serenely »Yes when you came back little Bilham had
shown me whats expected of a gentleman Little Bilham had lied like one«
»And like what you believed him«
»Well« said Strether »it was but a technical lie he classed the
attachment as virtuous That was a view for which there was much to be said
and the virtue came out for me hugely There was of course a great deal of it I
got it full in the face and I havent you see done with it yet«
»What I see what I saw« Maria returned »is that you dressed up even the
virtue You were wonderful you were beautiful as Ive had the honour of
telling you before but if you wish really to know« she sadly confessed »I
never quite knew where you were There were moments« she explained »when you
struck me as grandly cynical there were others when you struck me as grandly
vague«
Her friend considered »I had phases I had flights«
»Yes but things must have a basis«
»A basis seemed to me just what her beauty supplied«
»Her beauty of person«
»Well her beauty of everything The impression she makes She has such
variety and yet such harmony«
She considered him with one of her deep returns of indulgence returns out
of all proportion to the irritations they flooded over »Youre complete«
»Youre always too personal« he goodhumouredly said »but thats precisely
how I wondered and wandered«
»If you mean« she went on »that she was from the first for you the most
charming woman in the world nothings more simple Only that was an odd
foundation«
»For what I reared on it«
»For what you didnt«
»Well it was all not a fixed quantity And it had for me it has still
such elements of strangeness Her greater age than his her different world
traditions association her other opportunities liabilities standards«
His friend listened with respect to his enumeration of these disparities
then she disposed of them at a stroke »Those things are nothing when a womans
hit Its very awful She was hit«
Strether on his side did justice to that plea »Oh of course I saw she was
hit That she was hit was what we were busy with that she was hit was our great
affair But somehow I couldnt think of her as down in the dust And as put
there by our little Chad«
»Yet wasnt your little Chad just your miracle«
Strether admitted it »Of course I moved among miracles It was all
phantasmagoric But the great fact was that so much of it was none of my
business as I saw my business It isnt even now«
His companion turned away on this and it might well have been yet again
with the sharpness of a fear of how little his philosophy could bring her
personally »I wish she could hear you«
»Mrs Newsome«
»No not Mrs Newsome since I understand you that it doesnt matter now
what Mrs Newsome hears Hasnt she heard everything«
»Practically yes« He had thought a moment but he went on »You wish
Madame de Vionnet could hear me«
»Madame de Vionnet« She had come back to him »She thinks just the contrary
of what you say That you distinctly judge her«
He turned over the scene as the two women thus placed together for him
seemed to give it »She might have known «
»Might have known you dont« Miss Gostrey asked as he let it drop »She was
sure of it at first« she pursued as he said nothing »she took it for granted
at least as any woman in her position would But after that she changed her
mind she believed you believed «
»Well« he was curious
»Why in her sublimity And that belief had remained with her I make out
till the accident of the other day opened your eyes For that it did« said
Maria »open them «
»She cant help« he had taken it up »being aware No« he mused »I
suppose she thinks of that even yet«
»Then they were closed There you are However if you see her as the most
charming woman in the world it comes to the same thing And if youd like me to
tell her that you do still so see her « Miss Gostrey in short offered
herself for service to the end
It was an offer he could temporarily entertain but he decided »She knows
perfectly how I see her«
»Not favourably enough she mentioned to me to wish ever to see her again
She told me you had taken a final leave of her She says youve done with her«
»So I have«
Maria had a pause then she spoke as if for conscience »She wouldnt have
done with you She feels she has lost you yet that she might have been better
for you«
»Oh she has been quite good enough« Strether laughed
»She thinks you and she might at any rate have been friends«
»We might certainly Thats just« he continued to laugh »why Im going«
It was as if Maria could feel with this then at last that she had done her
best for each But she had still an idea »Shall I tell her that«
»No Tell her nothing«
»Very well then« To which in the next breath Miss Gostrey added »Poor dear
thing«
Her friend wondered then with raised eyebrows »Me«
»Oh no Marie de Vionnet«
He accepted the correction but he wondered still »Are you so sorry for her
as that«
It made her think a moment made her even speak with a smile But she
didnt really retract »Im sorry for us all«
IV
He was to delay no longer to reestablish communication with Chad and we have
just seen that he had spoken to Miss Gostrey of this intention on hearing from
her of the young mans absence It was not moreover only the assurance so given
that prompted him it was the need of causing his conduct to square with another
profession still the motive he had described to her as his sharpest for now
getting away If he was to get away because of some of the relations involved in
staying the cold attitude toward them might look pedantic in the light of
lingering on He must do both things he must see Chad but he must go The more
he thought of the former of these duties the more he felt himself make a subject
of insistence of the latter They were alike intensely present to him as he sat
in front of a quiet little café into which he had dropped on quitting Marias
entresol The rain that had spoiled his evening with her was over for it was
still to him as if his evening had been spoiled though it mightnt have been
wholly the rain It was late when he left the café yet not too late he
couldnt in any case go straight to bed and he would walk round by the
Boulevard Malesherbes rather far round on his way home Present enough
always was the small circumstance that had originally pressed for him the spring
of so big a difference the accident of little Bilhams appearance on the
balcony of the mystic troisième at the moment of his first visit and the effect
of it on his sense of what was then before him He recalled his watch his wait
and the recognition that had proceeded from the young stranger that had played
frankly into the air and had presently brought him up things smoothing the way
for his first straight step He had since had occasion a few times to pass the
house without going in but he had never passed it without again feeling how it
had then spoken to him He stopped short tonight on coming to sight of it it
was as if his last day were oddly copying his first The windows of Chads
apartment were open to the balcony a pair of them lighted and a figure that
had come out and taken up little Bilhams attitude a figure whose
cigarettespark he could see leaned on the rail and looked down at him It
denoted however no reappearance of his younger friend it quickly defined itself
in the tempered darkness as Chads more solid shape so that Chads was the
attention that after he had stepped forward into the street and signalled he
easily engaged Chads was the voice that sounding into the night with
promptness and seemingly with joy greeted him and called him up
That the young man had been visible there just in this position expressed
somehow for Strether that as Maria Gostrey had reported he had been absent and
silent and our friend drew breath on each landing the lift at that hour
having ceased to work before the implications of the fact He had been for a
week intensely away away to a distance and alone but he was more back than
ever and the attitude in which Strether had surprised him was something more
than a return it was clearly a conscious surrender He had arrived but an hour
before from London from Lucerne from Homburg from no matter where though
the visitors fancy on the staircase liked to fill it out and after a bath a
talk with Baptiste and a supper of light cold clever French things which one
could see the remains of there in the circle of the lamp pretty and
ultraParisian he had come into the air again for a smoke was occupied at the
moment of Strethers approach in what might have been called taking up his life
afresh His life his life Strether paused anew on the last flight at this
final rather breathless sense of what Chads life was doing with Chads mothers
emissary It was dragging him at strange hours up the staircases of the rich
it was keeping him out of bed at the end of long hot days it was transforming
beyond recognition the simple subtle conveniently uniform thing that had
anciently passed with him for a life of his own Why should it concern him that
Chad was to be fortified in the pleasant practice of smoking on balconies of
supping on salads of feeling his special conditions agreeably reaffirm
themselves of finding reassurance in comparisons and contrasts There was no
answer to such a question but that he was still practically committed he had
perhaps never yet so much known it It made him feel old and he would buy his
railwayticket feeling no doubt older the next day but he had meanwhile
come up four flights counting the entresol at midnight and without a lift for
Chads life The young man hearing him by this time and with Baptiste sent to
rest was already at the door so that Strether had before him in full
visibility the cause in which he was labouring and even with the troisième
fairly gained panting a little
Chad offered him as always a welcome in which the cordial and the formal
so far as the formal was the respectful handsomely met and after he had
expressed a hope that he would let him put him up for the night Strether was in
full possession of the key as it might have been called to what had lately
happened If he had just thought of himself as old Chad was at sight of him
thinking of him as older he wanted to put him up for the night just because he
was ancient and weary It could never be said the tenant of these quarters
wasnt nice to him a tenant who if he might indeed now keep him was probably
prepared to work it all still more thoroughly Our friend had in fact the
impression that with the minimum of encouragement Chad would propose to keep him
indefinitely an impression in the lap of which one of his own possibilities
seemed to sit Madame de Vionnet had wished him to stay so why didnt that
happily fit He could enshrine himself for the rest of his days in his young
hosts chambre dami and draw out these days at his young hosts expense there
could scarce be greater logical expression of the countenance he had been moved
to give There was literally a minute it was strange enough during which he
grasped the idea that as he was acting as he could only act he was
inconsistent The sign that the inward forces he had obeyed really hung together
would be that in default always of another career he should promote the good
cause by mounting guard on it These things during his first minutes came and
went but they were after all practically disposed of as soon as he had
mentioned his errand He had come to say goodbye yet that was only a part so
that from the moment Chad accepted his farewell the question of a more ideal
affirmation gave way to something else He proceeded with the rest of his
business »Youll be a brute you know youll be guilty of the last infamy
if you ever forsake her«
That uttered there at the solemn hour uttered in the place that was full
of her influence was the rest of his business and when once he had heard
himself say it he felt that his message had never before been spoken It placed
his present call immediately on solid ground and the effect of it was to enable
him quite to play with what we have called the key Chad showed no shade of
embarrassment but had none the less been troubled for him after their meeting
in the country had had fears and doubts on the subject of his comfort He was
disturbed as it were only for him and had positively gone away to ease him
off to let him down if it wasnt indeed rather to screw him up the more
gently Seeing him now fairly jaded he had come with characteristic good
humour all the way to meet him and what Strether thereupon supremely made out
was that he would abound for him to the end in conscientious assurances This
was what was between them while the visitor remained so far from having to go
over old ground he found his entertainer keen to agree to everything It
couldnt be put too strongly for him that hed be a brute »Oh rather if I
should do anything of that sort I hope you believe I really feel it«
»I want it« said Strether »to be my last word of all to you I cant say
more you know and I dont see how I can do more in every way than Ive
done«
Chad took this almost artlessly as a direct allusion »Youve seen her«
»Oh yes to say goodbye And if I had doubted the truth of what I tell you
«
»Shed have cleared up your doubt« Chad understood rather again It
even kept him briefly silent But he made that up »She must have been
wonderful«
»She was« Strether candidly admitted all of which practically told as a
reference to the conditions created by the accident of the previous week
They appeared for a little to be looking back at it and that came out still
more in what Chad next said »I dont know what youve really thought all
along I never did know for anything with you seemed to be possible But of
course of course « Without confusion quite with nothing but indulgence he
broke down he pulled up »After all you understand I spoke to you originally
only as I had to speak Theres only one way isnt there about such things
However« he smiled with a final philosophy »I see its all right«
Strether met his eyes with a sense of multiplying thoughts What was it that
made him at present late at night and after journeys so renewedly so
substantially young Strether saw in a moment what it was it was that he was
younger again than Madame de Vionnet He himself said immediately none of the
things that he was thinking he said something quite different »You have really
been to a distance«
»Ive been to England« Chad spoke cheerfully and promptly but gave no
further account of it than to say »One must sometimes get off«
Strether wanted no more facts he only wanted to justify as it were his
question »Of course you do as youre free to do But I hope this time that
you didnt go for me«
»For very shame at bothering you really too much My dear man« Chad
laughed »what wouldnt I do for you«
Strethers easy answer for this was that it was a disposition he had exactly
come to profit by »Even at the risk of being in your way Ive waited on you
know for a definite reason«
Chad took it in »Oh yes for us to make if possible a still better
impression« And he stood there happily exhaling his full general consciousness
»Im delighted to gather that you feel weve made it«
There was a pleasant irony in the words which his guest preoccupied and
keeping to the point didnt take up »If I had my sense of wanting the rest of
the time the time of their being still on this side« he continued to explain
»I know now why I wanted it«
He was as grave as distinct as a demonstrator before a blackboard and
Chad continued to face him like an intelligent pupil »You wanted to have been
put through the whole thing«
Strether again for a moment said nothing he turned his eyes away and
they lost themselves through the open window in the dusky outer air »I shall
learn from the Bank here where theyre now having their letters and my last
word which I shall write in the morning and which theyre expecting as my
ultimatum will so immediately reach them« The light of his plural pronoun was
sufficiently reflected in his companions face as he again met it and he
completed his demonstration He pursued indeed as if for himself »Of course
Ive first to justify what I shall do«
»Youre justifying it beautifully« Chad declared
»Its not a question of advising you not to go« Strether said »but of
absolutely preventing you if possible from so much as thinking of it Let me
accordingly appeal to you by all you hold sacred«
Chad showed a surprise »What makes you think me capable «
»Youd not only be as I say a brute youd be« his companion went on in
the same way »a criminal of the deepest dye«
Chad gave a sharper look as if to gauge a possible suspicion »I dont know
what should make you think Im tired of her«
Strether didnt quite know either and such impressions for the imaginative
mind were always too fine too floating to produce on the spot their warrant
There was none the less for him in the very manner of his hosts allusion to
satiety as a thinkable motive a slight breath of the ominous »I feel how much
more she can do for you She hasnt done it all yet Stay with her at least till
she has«
»And leave her then«
Chad had kept smiling but its effect in Strether was a shade of dryness
»Dont leave her before When youve got all that can be got I dont say« he
added a trifle grimly »That will be the proper time But as for you from such
a woman there will always be something to be got my remarks not a wrong to
her« Chad let him go on showing every decent deference showing perhaps also a
candid curiosity for this sharper accent »I remember you you know as you
were«
»An awful ass wasnt I«
The response was as prompt as if he had pressed a spring it had a ready
abundance at which he even winced so that he took a moment to meet it »You
certainly then wouldnt have seemed worth all youve let me in for Youve
defined yourself better Your value has quintupled«
»Well then wouldnt that be enough «
Chad had risked it jocosely but Strether remained blank »Enough«
»If one should wish to live on ones accumulations« After which however
as his friend appeared cold to the joke the young man as easily dropped it »Of
course I really never forget night or day what I owe her I owe her
everything I give you my word of honour« he frankly rang out »that Im not a
bit tired of her« Strether at this only gave him a stare the way youth could
express itself was again and again a wonder He meant no harm though he might
after all be capable of much yet he spoke of being tired of her almost as he
might have spoken of being tired of roast mutton for dinner »She has never for
a moment yet bored me never been wanting as the cleverest women sometimes
are in tact She has never talked about her tact as even they too sometimes
talk but she has always had it She has never had it more« he handsomely made
the point »than just lately« And he scrupulously went further »She has never
been anything I could call a burden«
Strether for a moment said nothing then he spoke gravely with his shade of
dryness deepened »Oh if you didnt do her justice «
»I should be a beast eh«
Strether devoted no time to saying what he would be that visibly would
take them far If there was nothing for it but to repeat however repetition
was no mistake »You owe her everything very much more than she can ever owe
you Youve in other words duties to her of the most positive sort and I dont
see what other duties as the others are presented to you can be held to go
before them«
Chad looked at him with a smile »And you know of course about the others
eh since its you yourself who have done the presenting«
»Much of it yes and to the best of my ability But not all from the
moment your sister took my place«
»She didnt« Chad returned »Sally took a place certainly but it was
never I saw from the first moment to be yours No one with us will ever
take yours It wouldnt be possible«
»Ah of course« sighed Strether »I knew it I believe youre right No one
in the world I imagine was ever so portentously solemn There I am« he added
with another sigh as if weary enough on occasion of this truth »I was made
so«
Chad appeared for a little to consider the way he was made he might for
this purpose have measured him up and down His conclusion favoured the fact
»You have never needed any one to make you better There has never been any one
good enough They couldnt« the young man declared
His friend hesitated »I beg your pardon They have«
Chad showed not without amusement his doubt »Who then«
Strether though a little dimly smiled at him »Women too«
»Two« Chad stared and laughed »Oh I dont believe for such work in any
more than one So youre proving too much And what is beastly at all events«
he added »is losing you«
Strether had set himself in motion for departure but at this he paused
»Are you afraid«
»Afraid «
»Of doing wrong I mean away from my eye« Before Chad could speak however
he had taken himself up »I am certainly« he laughed »prodigious«
»Yes you spoil us for all the stupid « This might have been on Chads
part in its extreme emphasis almost too freely extravagant but it was full
plainly enough of the intention of comfort it carried with it a protest
against doubt and a promise positively of performance Picking up a hat in the
vestibule he came out with his friend came downstairs took his arm
affectionately as to help and guide him treating him if not exactly as aged
and infirm yet as a noble eccentric who appealed to tenderness and keeping on
with him while they walked to the next corner and the next »You neednt tell
me you neednt tell me« this again as they proceeded he wished to make
Strether feel What he neednt tell him was now at last in the geniality of
separation anything at all it concerned him to know He knew up to the hilt
that really came over Chad he understood felt recorded his vow and they
lingered on it as they had lingered in their walk to Strethers hotel the night
of their first meeting The latter took at this hour all he could get he had
given all he had had to give he was as depleted as if he had spent his last
sou But there was just one thing for which before they broke off Chad seemed
disposed slightly to bargain His companion neednt as he said tell him but
he might himself mention that he had been getting some news of the art of
advertisement He came out quite suddenly with this announcement while Strether
wondered if his revived interest were what had taken him with strange
inconsequence over to London He appeared at all events to have been looking
into the question and had encountered a revelation Advertising scientifically
worked presented itself thus as the great new force »It really does the thing
you know«
They were face to face under the streetlamp as they had been the first
night and Strether no doubt looked blank »Affects you mean the sale of the
object advertised«
»Yes but affects it extraordinarily really beyond what one had supposed
I mean of course when its done as one makes out that in our roaring age it
can be done Ive been finding out a little though it doubtless doesnt amount
to much more than what you originally so awfully vividly and all very
nearly that first night put before me Its an art like another and infinite
like all the arts« He went on as if for the joke of it almost as if his
friends face amused him »In the hands naturally of a master The right man
must take hold With the right man to work it cest un monde«
Strether had watched him quite as if there on the pavement without a
pretext he had begun to dance a fancy step »Is what youre thinking of that
you yourself in the case you have in mind would be the right man«
Chad had thrown back his light coat and thrust each of his thumbs into an
armhole of his waistcoat in which position his fingers played up and down
»Why what is he but what you yourself as I say took me for when you first
came out«
Strether felt a little faint but he coerced his attention »Oh yes and
theres no doubt that with your natural parts youd have much in common with
him Advertising is clearly at this time of day the secret of trade Its quite
possible it will be open to you giving the whole of your mind to it to make
the whole place hum with you Your mothers appeal is to the whole of your mind
and thats exactly the strength of her case«
Chads fingers continued to twiddle but he had something of a drop »Ah
weve been through my mothers case«
»So I thought Why then do you speak of the matter«
»Only because it was part of our original discussion To wind up where we
began my interests purely platonic There at any rate the fact is the fact
of the possible I mean the money in it«
»Oh damn the money in it« said Strether And then as the young mans fixed
smile seemed to shine out more strange »Shall you give your friend up for the
money in it«
Chad preserved his handsome grimace as well as the rest of his attitude
»Youre not altogether in your so great solemnity kind Havent I been
drinking you in showing you all I feel youre worth to me What have I done
what am I doing but cleave to her to the death The only thing is« he
goodhumouredly explained »that one cant but have it before one in the
cleaving the point where the death comes in Dont be afraid for that Its
pleasant to a fellows feelings« he developed »to sizeup the bribe he applies
his foot to«
»Oh then if all you wants a kickable surface the bribes enormous«
»Good Then there it goes« Chad administered his kick with fantastic force
and sent an imaginary object flying It was accordingly as if they were once
more rid of the question and could come back to what really concerned him »Of
course I shall see you tomorrow«
But Strether scarce heeded the plan proposed for this he had still the
impression not the slighter for the simulated kick of an irrelevant hornpipe
or jig »Youre restless«
»Ah« returned Chad as they parted »youre exciting«
V
He had however within two days another separation to face He had sent Maria
Gostrey a word early by hand to ask if he might come to breakfast in
consequence of which at noon she awaited him in the cool shade of her little
Dutchlooking diningroom This retreat was at the back of the house with a
view of a scrap of old garden that had been saved from modern ravage and though
he had on more than one other occasion had his legs under its small and
peculiarly polished table of hospitality the place had never before struck him
as so sacred to pleasant knowledge to intimate charm to antique order to a
neatness that was almost august To sit there was as he had told his hostess
before to see life reflected for the time in ideally kept pewter which was
somehow becoming improving to life so that ones eyes were held and comforted
Strethers were comforted at all events now and the more that it was the last
time with the charming effect on the board bare of a cloth and proud of its
perfect surface of the small old crockery and old silver matched by the more
substantial pieces happily disposed about the room The specimens of vivid Delf
in particular had the dignity of family portraits and it was in the midst of
them that our friend resignedly expressed himself He spoke even with a certain
philosophic humour »Theres nothing more to wait for I seem to have done a
good days work Ive let them have it all round Ive seen Chad who has been
to London and come back He tells me Im exciting and I seem indeed pretty well
to have upset every one Ive at any rate excited him Hes distinctly
restless«
»Youve excited me« Miss Gostrey smiled »Im distinctly restless«
»Oh you were that when I found you It seems to me Ive rather got you out
of it Whats this« he asked as he looked about him »but a haunt of ancient
peace«
»I wish with all my heart« she presently replied »I could make you treat
it as a haven of rest« On which they fronted each other across the table as
if things unuttered were in the air
Strether seemed in his way when he next spoke to take some of them up
»It wouldnt give me that would be the trouble what it will no doubt still
give you Im not« he explained leaning back in his chair but with his eyes
on a small ripe round melon »in real harmony with what surrounds me You are
I take it too hard You dont It makes thats what it comes to in the end a
fool of me« Then at a tangent »What has he been doing in London« he demanded
»Ah one may go to London« Maria laughed »You know I did«
Yes he took the reminder »And you brought me back« He brooded there
opposite to her but without gloom »Whom has Chad brought Hes full of ideas
And I wrote to Sarah« he added »the first thing this morning So Im square
Im ready for them«
She neglected certain parts of this speech in the interest of others »Marie
said to me the other day that she felt him to have the makings of an immense man
of business«
»There it is Hes the son of his father«
»But such a father«
»Ah just the right one from that point of view But it isnt his father in
him« Strether added »that troubles me«
»What is it then« He came back to his breakfast he partook presently of
the charming melon which she liberally cut for him and it was only after this
that he met her question Then moreover it was but to remark that hed answer
her presently She waited she watched she served him and amused him and it
was perhaps with this last idea that she soon reminded him of his having never
even yet named to her the article produced at Woollett »Do you remember our
talking of it in London that night at the play« Before he could say yes
however she had put it to him for other matters Did he remember did he
remember this and that of their first days He remembered everything bringing
up with humour even things of which she professed no recollection things she
vehemently denied and falling back above all on the great interest of their
early time the curiosity felt by both of them as to where he would come out
They had so assumed it was to be in some wonderful place they had thought of
it as so very much out Well that was doubtless what it had been since he had
come out just there He was out in truth as far as it was possible to be and
must now rather bethink himself of getting in again He found on the spot the
image of his recent history he was like one of the figures of the old clock at
Berne They came out on one side at their hour jigged along their little
course in the public eye and went in on the other side He too had jigged his
little course him too a modest retreat awaited He offered now should she
really like to know to name the great product of Woollett It would be a great
commentary on everything At this she stopped him off she not only had no wish
to know but she wouldnt know for the world She had done with the products of
Woollett for all the good she had got from them She desired no further news
of them and she mentioned that Madame de Vionnet herself had to her knowledge
lived exempt from the information he was ready to supply She had never
consented to receive it though she would have taken it under stress from Mrs
Pocock But it was a matter about which Mrs Pocock appeared to have had little
to say never sounding the word and it didnt signify now There was nothing
clearly for Maria Gostrey that signified now save one sharp point that is to
which she came in time »I dont know whether its before you as a possibility
that left to himself Mr Chad may after all go back I judge that it is more
or less so before you from what you just now said of him«
Her guest had his eyes on her kindly but attentively as if foreseeing what
was to follow this »I dont think it will be for the money« And then as she
seemed uncertain »I mean I dont believe it will be for that hell give her
up«
»Then he will give her up«
Strether waited a moment rather slow and deliberate now drawing out a
little this last soft stage pleading with her in various suggestive and
unspoken ways for patience and understanding »What were you just about to ask
me«
»Is there anything he can do that would make you patch it up«
»With Mrs Newsome«
Her assent as if she had had a delicacy about sounding the name was only
in her face but she added with it »Or is there anything he can do that would
make her try it«
»To patch it up with me« His answer came at last in a conclusive headshake
»Theres nothing any one can do Its over Over for both of us«
Maria wondered seemed a little to doubt »Are you so sure for her«
»Oh yes sure now Too much has happened Im different for her«
She took it in then drawing a deeper breath »I see So that as shes
different for you «
»Ah but« he interrupted »shes not« And as Miss Gostrey wondered again
»Shes the same Shes more than ever the same But I do what I didnt before
I see her«
He spoke gravely and as if responsibly since he had to pronounce and the
effect of it was slightly solemn so that she simply exclaimed »Oh« Satisfied
and grateful however she showed in her own next words an acceptance of his
statement »What then do you go home to«
He had pushed his plate a little away occupied with another side of the
matter taking refuge verily in that side and feeling so moved that he soon
found himself on his feet He was affected in advance by what he believed might
come from her and he would have liked to forestall it and deal with it
tenderly yet in the presence of it he wished still more to be though as
smoothly as possible deterrent and conclusive He put her question by for the
moment he told her more about Chad »It would have been impossible to meet me
more than he did last night on the question of the infamy of not sticking to
her«
»Is that what you called it for him infamy«
»Oh rather I described to him in detail the base creature hed be and he
quite agrees with me about it«
»So that its really as if you had nailed him«
»Quite really as if I told him I should curse him«
»Oh« she smiled »you have done it« And then having thought again »You
cant after that propose « Yet she scanned his face
»Propose again to Mrs Newsome«
She hesitated afresh but she brought it out »Ive never believed you
know that you did propose I always believed it was really she and so far as
that goes I can understand it What I mean is« she explained »that with such
a spirit the spirit of curses your breach is past mending She has only to
know what youve done to him never again to raise a finger«
»Ive done« said Strether »what I could one cant do more He protests
his devotion and his horror But Im not sure Ive saved him He protests too
much He asks how one can dream of his being tired But he has all life before
him«
Maria saw what he meant »Hes formed to please«
»And its our friend who has formed him« Strether felt in it the strange
irony
»So its scarcely his fault«
»Its at any rate his danger I mean« said Strether »its hers But she
knows it«
»Yes she knows it And is your idea« Miss Gostrey asked »that there was
some other woman in London«
»Yes No That is I have no ideas Im afraid of them Ive done with them«
And he put out his hand to her »Goodbye«
It brought her back to her unanswered question »To what do you go home«
»I dont know There will always be something«
»To a great difference« she said as she kept his hand
»A great difference no doubt Yet I shall see what I can make of it«
»Shall you make anything so good « But as if remembering what Mrs
Newsome had done it was as far as she went
He had sufficiently understood »So good as this place at this moment So
good as what you make of everything you touch« He took a moment to say for
really and truly what stood about him there in her offer which was as the
offer of exquisite service of lightened care for the rest of his days might
well have tempted It built him softly round it roofed him warmly over it
rested all so firm on selection And what ruled selection was beauty and
knowledge It was awkward it was almost stupid not to seem to prize such
things yet none the less so far as they made his opportunity they made it
only for a moment Shed moreover understand she always understood
That indeed might be but meanwhile she was going on »Theres nothing you
know I wouldnt do for you«
»Oh yes I know«
»Theres nothing« she repeated »in all the world«
»I know I know But all the same I must go« He had got it at last »To be
right«
»To be right«
She had echoed it in vague deprecation but he felt it already clear for
her »That you see is my only logic Not out of the whole affair to have got
anything for myself«
She thought »But with your wonderful impressions youll have got a great
deal«
»A great deal« he agreed »But nothing like you Its you who would make
me wrong«
Honest and fine she couldnt greatly pretend she didnt see it Still she
could pretend just a little »But why should you be so dreadfully right«
»Thats the way that if I must go you yourself would be the first to
want me And I cant do anything else«
So then she had to take it though still with her defeated protest »It
isnt so much your being right its your horrible sharp eye for what makes you
so«
»Oh but youre just as bad yourself You cant resist me when I point that
out«
She sighed it at last all comically all tragically away »I cant indeed
resist you«
»Then there we are« said Strether