determined him
to see; he was therefore not to quarrel with the time given up to the
business. As much as ever, accordingly, now that a fortnight had
elapsed, the situation created for Sarah, and against which she had
raised no protest, was that of her having accommodated herself to her
adventure as to a pleasure-party surrendered perhaps even somewhat in
excess to bustle and to "pace." If her brother had been at any point
the least bit open to criticism it might have been on the ground of his
spicing the draught too highly and pouring the cup too full. Frankly
treating the whole occasion of the presence of his relatives as an
opportunity for amusement, he left it, no doubt, but scant margin as an
opportunity for anything else. He suggested, invented, abounded--yet
all the while with the loosest easiest rein. Strether, during his own
weeks, had gained a sense of knowing Paris; but he saw it afresh, and
with fresh emotion, in the form of the knowledge offered to his
colleague.

A thousand unuttered thoughts hummed for him in the air of these
observations; not the least frequent of which was that Sarah might well
of a truth not quite know whither she was drifting. She was in no
position not to appear to expect that Chad should treat her handsomely;
yet she struck our friend as privately stiffening a little each time
she missed the chance of marking the great nuance. The great nuance was
in brief that of course her brother must treat her handsomely--she
should like to see him not; but that treating her handsomely, none the
less, wasn't all in all--treating her handsomely buttered no parsnips;
and that in fine there were moments when she felt the fixed eyes of
their admirable absent mother fairly screw into the flat of her back.
Strether, watching, after his habit, and overscoring with thought,
positively had moments of his own in which he found himself sorry for
her--occasions on which she affected him as a person seated in a
runaway vehicle and turning over the question of a possible jump. WOULD
she jump, could she, would THAT be a safe placed--this question, at
such instants, sat for him in her lapse into pallor, her tight lips,
her conscious eyes. It came back to the main point at issue: would she
be, after all, to be squared? He believed on the whole she would jump;
yet his alternations on this subject were the more especial stuff of
his suspense. One thing remained well before him--a conviction that
was in fac