The Ambassadors Henry James (novel24 txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
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Strether assented to this proposition with full lucidity, his companionâs plural pronoun, which stood all for Mrs. Newsome and her daughter, having no ambiguity for him. There was nothing, apparently, to stand for Mamie and Jim; and this added to our friendâs sense of Chadâs knowing what he thought. âBut theyâve made up their minds to the oppositeâ âthat you canât go on as you are.â
âNo,â Chad continued in the same way; âthey wonât have it for a minute.â
Strether on his side also reflectively smoked. It was as if their high place really represented some moral elevation from which they could look down on their recent past. âThere never was the smallest chance, do you know, that they would have it for a moment.â
âOf course notâ âno real chance. But if they were willing to think there wasâ â!â
âThey werenât willing.â Strether had worked it all out. âIt wasnât for you they came out, but for me. It wasnât to see for themselves what youâre doing, but what Iâm doing. The first branch of their curiosity was inevitably destined, under my culpable delay, to give way to the second; and itâs on the second that, if I may use the expression and you donât mind my marking the invidious fact, theyâve been of late exclusively perched. When Sarah sailed it was me, in other words, they were after.â
Chad took it in both with intelligence and with indulgence. âIt is rather a business thenâ âwhat Iâve let you in for!â
Strether had again a brief pause; which ended in a reply that seemed to dispose once for all of this element of compunction. Chad was to treat it, at any rate, so far as they were again together, as having done so. âI was âinâ when you found me.â
âAh but it was you,â the young man laughed, âwho found me.â
âI only found you out. It was you who found me in. It was all in the dayâs work for them, at all events, that they should come. And theyâve greatly enjoyed it,â Strether declared.
âWell, Iâve tried to make them,â said Chad.
His companion did himself presently the same justice. âSo have I. I tried even this very morningâ âwhile Mrs. Pocock was with me. She enjoys for instance, almost as much as anything else, not being, as Iâve said, afraid of me; and I think I gave her help in that.â
Chad took a deeper interest. âWas she very very nasty?â
Strether debated. âWell, she was the most important thingâ âshe was definite. She wasâ âat lastâ âcrystalline. And I felt no remorse. I saw that they must have come.â
âOh I wanted to see them for myself; so that if it were only for thatâ â!â Chadâs own remorse was as small.
This appeared almost all Strether wanted. âIsnât your having seen them for yourself then the thing, beyond all others, that has come of their visit?â
Chad looked as if he thought it nice of his old friend to put it so. âDonât you count it as anything that youâre dishedâ âif you are dished? Are you, my dear man, dished?â
It sounded as if he were asking if he had caught cold or hurt his foot, and Strether for a minute but smoked and smoked. âI want to see her again. I must see her.â
âOf course you must.â Then Chad hesitated. âDo you meanâ âaâ âMother herself?â
âOh your motherâ âthat will depend.â
It was as if Mrs. Newsome had somehow been placed by the words very far off. Chad however endeavoured in spite of this to reach the place. âWhat do you mean it will depend on?â
Strether, for all answer, gave him a longish look. âI was speaking of Sarah. I must positivelyâ âthough she quite cast me offâ âsee her again. I canât part with her that way.â
âThen she was awfully unpleasant?â
Again Strether exhaled. âShe was what she had to be. I mean that from the moment theyâre not delighted they can only beâ âwell what I admit she was. We gave them,â he went on, âtheir chance to be delighted, and theyâve walked up to it, and looked all round it, and not taken it.â
âYou can bring a horse to waterâ â!â Chad suggested.
âPrecisely. And the tune to which this morning Sarah wasnât delightedâ âthe tune to which, to adopt your metaphor, she refused to drinkâ âleaves us on that side nothing more to hope.â
Chad had a pause, and then as if consolingly: âIt was never of course really the least on the cards that they would be âdelighted.âââ
âWell, I donât know, after all,â Strether mused. âIâve had to come as far round. Howeverââ âhe shook it offâ ââitâs doubtless my performance thatâs absurd.â
âThere are certainly moments,â said Chad, âwhen you seem to me too good to be true. Yet if you are true,â he added, âthat seems to be all that need concern me.â
âIâm true, but Iâm incredible. Iâm fantastic and ridiculousâ âI donât explain myself even to myself. How can they then,â Strether asked, âunderstand me? So I donât quarrel with them.â
âI see. They quarrel,â said Chad rather comfortably, âwith us.â Strether noted once more the comfort, but his young friend had already gone on. âI should feel greatly ashamed, all the same, if I didnât put it before you again that you ought to think, after all, tremendously well. I mean before giving up beyond recallâ ââ With which insistence, as from a certain delicacy, dropped.
Ah but Strether wanted it. âSay it all, say it all.â
âWell, at your age, and with whatâ âwhen allâs said and doneâ âMother might do for you and be for you.â
Chad had said it all, from his natural scruple, only to that extent; so that Strether after an instant himself took a hand. âMy absence of an
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