 said Strether, »the way she has spoken for you, all the same - so
far as I've given her a chance - has only made me feel how much she wishes to
keep you. If you make nothing of that I don't 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 isn't my signal to start just what
you've been waiting for?«
    Strether debated; he took another turn. »This last month I've been awaiting,
I think, more than anything else, the message I have here.«
    »You mean you've been afraid of it?«
    »Well, I was doing my business in my own way. And I suppose your present
announcement,« Strether went on, »isn't merely the result of your sense of what
I've expected. Otherwise you wouldn't 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!
It's only because she's afraid - afraid of the way that, over there, I may get
caught. But her fear's groundless.«
    He had met again his companion's 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 Strether's 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 you're 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 don't immediately sail the Pococks will immediately come out. That's
what I mean,« said Strether, »by your mother's 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. »
