r your question?" He spoke quite
without resenting it. "Well, such questions have always a rather
exaggerated side. One doesn't know quite what you mean by being in
women's 'hands.' It's all so vague. One is when one isn't. One isn't
when one is. And then one can't quite give people away." He seemed
kindly to explain. "I've NEVER got stuck--so very hard; and, as
against anything at any time really better, I don't think I've ever
been afraid." There was something in it that held Strether to wonder,
and this gave him time to go on. He broke out as with a more helpful
thought. "Don't you know how I like Paris itself?"

The upshot was indeed to make our friend marvel. "Oh if THAT'S all
that's the matter with you--!" It was HE who almost showed resentment.

Chad's smile of a truth more than met it. "But isn't that enough?"

Strether hesitated, but it came out. "Not enough for your mother!"
Spoken, however, it sounded a trifle odd--the effect of which was that
Chad broke into a laugh. Strether, at this, succumbed as well, though
with extreme brevity. "Permit us to have still our theory. But if you
ARE so free and so strong you're inexcusable. I'll write in the
morning," he added with decision. "I'll say I've got you."

This appeared to open for Chad a new interest. "How often do you
write?"

"Oh perpetually."

"And at great length?"

Strether had become a little impatient. "I hope it's not found too
great."

"Oh I'm sure not. And you hear as often?"

Again Strether paused. "As often as I deserve."

"Mother writes," said Chad, "a lovely letter."

Strether, before the closed porte-cochere, fixed him a moment. "It's
more, my boy, than YOU do! But our suppositions don't matter," he
added, "if you're actually not entangled."

Chad's pride seemed none the less a little touched. "I never WAS
that--let me insist. I always had my own way." With which he pursued:
"And I have it at present."

"Then what are you here for? What has kept you," Strether asked, "if
you HAVE been able to leave?"

It made Chad, after a stare, throw himself back. "Do you think one's
kept only by women?" His surprise and his verbal emphasis rang out so
clear in the still street that Strether winced till he remembered the
safety of their English speech. "Is that," the young man demanded,
"what they think at Woollett?" At the good faith in the question
Strether had changed colour, feeling that, as he would have sai