usual
average?"

It was not quite pointedly sceptical, but it seemed somehow a plea for
the purest veracity, and it thereby affected our friend as the very
voice of Milrose. He had long since made a mental distinction--though
never in truth daring to betray it--between the voice of Milrose and
the voice even of Woollett. It was the former he felt, that was most
in the real tradition. There had been occasions in his past when the
sound of it had reduced him to temporary confusion, and the present,
for some reason, suddenly became such another. It was nevertheless no
light matter that the very effect of his confusion should be to make
him again prevaricate. "That description hardly does justice to a man
to whom it has done such a lot of good to see YOU."

Waymarsh fixed on his washing-stand the silent detached stare with
which Milrose in person, as it were, might have marked the
unexpectedness of a compliment from Woollett, and Strether for his
part, felt once more like Woollett in person. "I mean," his friend
presently continued, "that your appearance isn't as bad as I've seen
it: it compares favourably with what it was when I last noticed it."
On this appearance Waymarsh's eyes yet failed to rest; it was almost as
if they obeyed an instinct of propriety, and the effect was still
stronger when, always considering the basin and jug, he added: "You've
filled out some since then."

"I'm afraid I have," Strether laughed: "one does fill out some with
all one takes in, and I've taken in, I dare say, more than I've natural
room for. I was dog-tired when I sailed." It had the oddest sound of
cheerfulness.

"I was dog-tired," his companion returned, "when I arrived, and it's
this wild hunt for rest that takes all the life out of me. The fact
is, Strether--and it's a comfort to have you here at last to say it to;
though I don't know, after all, that I've really waited; I've told it
to people I've met in the cars--the fact is, such a country as this
ain't my KIND of country anyway. There ain't a country I've seen over
here that DOES seem my kind. Oh I don't say but what there are plenty
of pretty places and remarkable old things; but the trouble is that I
don't seem to feel anywhere in tune. That's one of the reasons why I
suppose I've gained so little. I haven't had the first sign of that
lift I was led to expect." With this he broke out more earnestly.
"Look here--I want to go back."

His eyes were all at