 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 won't - though he has had it all,
and more than all, from me. He wants in short his own personal impression, and
he'll get it - strong. But as soon as he has got it Mamie won't suffer.«
    »Oh Mamie mustn't suffer!« Madame de Vionnet soothingly emphasised.
    But Strether could reassure her. »Don't fear. As soon as he has done with
Jim, Jim will fall to me. And then you'll 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
don't know; I'm watching. I'm 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 haven't you known her before?«
    »Yes,« he smiled - »but somehow at home she wasn't 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. »Hasn't she met Chad?«
    »Certainly - but not for the first time. He's an old friend.« At which
Strether had a slow amused significant headshake that made her go on: »You mean
that for her at least he's 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
