Page:The Ambassadors (London, Methuen & Co., 1903).djvu/354

348 Strether assisted, at his distance. "'For him'? For Chad?"

"For Chad, in a manner, naturally always. But in particular, to-night, for Mr. Pocock." And then, as her friend still stared: "Yes, it is of a bravery! But that's what she has: her high sense of duty." It was more than sufficiently before them. "When Mr. Newsome has his hands so embarrassed with his sister"

"It's quite the least"—Strether filled it out—"that she should take his sister's husband? Certainly—quite the least. So she has taken him."

"She has taken him." It was all Miss Barrace had meant.

Still, it remained enough. "It must be funny."

"Oh, it is funny." That, of course, essentially went with it.

But it brought them back. "How indeed then she must care!" In answer to which Strether's interlocutress dropped a comprehensive "Ah!" which perhaps expressed a slight impatience at the time he took to get used to it. She herself had got used to it long before.