.«
    »That's at all events, clearly,« he observed after an instant, »the way I
don't strike you.«
    »Well,« she so far assented, »as you haven't yet said you won't have the
little patience with me I ask for -«
    »You draw splendid conclusions? Perfectly. But I don't 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 haven't used. You come really late with your request. I've
already done all that for myself the case admits of. I've said my say, and here
I am.«
    »Yes, here you are, fortunately!« Madame de Vionnet laughed. »Mrs. Newsome,«
she added in another tone, »didn't 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 I'm saying
extraordinary things, why, perhaps, mayn't I? Besides, doesn't 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 we've
talked of it - most certainly. And the question's not what has had least to do
with my wishing to see you.«
    »To judge if I'm the sort of man a woman can -?«
    »Precisely,« she exclaimed - »you wonderful gentleman! I do judge - I have
judged. A woman can't. You're safe - with every right to be. You'd be much
happier if you'd only believe it.«
    Strether was
