. 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 you've 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. I've 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 couldn't give her the truth of the case without them; and it seemed
to him moreover now that he didn't care. He had at all events not served his
cause, for she sprang at its exposed side. »A revelation - to me: I've come to
such a woman for a revelation? You talk to me about distinction - you, you
who've 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?«
    Sarah's answer came so straight
