The Ambassadors Henry James (novel24 txt) đ
- Author: Henry James
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Chad had been absent from the Boulevard Malesherbesâ âwas absent from Paris altogether; he had learned that from the concierge, but had nevertheless gone up, and gone upâ âthere were no two ways about itâ âfrom an uncontrollable, a really, if one would, depraved curiosity. The concierge had mentioned to him that a friend of the tenant of the troisiĂšme was for the time in possession; and this had been Stretherâs pretext for a further enquiry, an experiment carried on, under Chadâs roof, without his knowledge. âI found his friend in fact there keeping the place warm, as he called it, for him; Chad himself being, as appears, in the south. He went a month ago to Cannes and though his return begins to be looked for it canât be for some days. I might, you see, perfectly have waited a week; might have beaten a retreat as soon as I got this essential knowledge. But I beat no retreat; I did the opposite; I stayed, I dawdled, I trifled; above all I looked round. I saw, in fine; andâ âI donât know what to call itâ âI sniffed. Itâs a detail, but itâs as if there were somethingâ âsomething very goodâ âto sniff.â
Waymarshâs face had shown his friend an attention apparently so remote that the latter was slightly surprised to find it at this point abreast with him. âDo you mean a smell? What of?â
âA charming scent. But I donât know.â
Waymarsh gave an inferential grunt. âDoes he live there with a woman?â
âI donât know.â
Waymarsh waited an instant for more, then resumed. âHas he taken her off with him?â
âAnd will he bring her back?ââ âStrether fell into the enquiry. But he wound it up as before. âI donât know.â
The way he wound it up, accompanied as this was with another drop back, another degustation of the LĂ©oville, another wipe of his moustache and another good word for François, seemed to produce in his companion a slight irritation. âThen what the devil do you know?â
âWell,â said Strether almost gaily, âI guess I donât know anything!â His gaiety might have been a tribute to the fact that the state he had been reduced to did for him again what had been done by his talk of the matter with Miss Gostrey at the London theatre. It was somehow enlarging; and the air of that amplitude was now doubtless more or lessâ âand all for Waymarsh to feelâ âin his further response. âThatâs what I found out from the young man.â
âBut I thought you said you found out nothing.â
âNothing but thatâ âthat I donât know anything.â
âAnd what good does that do you?â
âItâs just,â said Strether, âwhat Iâve come to you to help me to discover. I mean anything about anything over here. I felt that, up there. It regularly rose before me in its might. The young man moreoverâ âChadâs friendâ âas good as told me so.â
âAs good as told you you know nothing about anything?â Waymarsh appeared to look at someone who might have as good as told him. âHow old is he?â
âWell, I guess not thirty.â
âYet you had to take that from him?â
âOh I took a good deal moreâ âsince, as I tell you, I took an invitation to dĂ©jeuner.â
âAnd are you going to that unholy meal?â
âIf youâll come with me. He wants you too, you know. I told him about you. He gave me his card,â Strether pursued, âand his nameâs rather funny. Itâs John Little Bilham, and he says his two surnames are, on account of his being small, inevitably used together.â
âWell,â Waymarsh asked with due detachment from these details, âwhatâs he doing up there?â
âHis account of himself is that
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