 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 breakfast-tray, 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. Wasn't she hanging about the porte-cochère 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. »We're
leaving Paris.«
    »Leaving? That is sudden.«
    Waymarsh showed a different opinion, »Less so than it may seem. The purpose
of Mrs. Pocock's visit is to explain to you in fact that it's not.«
    Strether didn't 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 comrade's 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
