it all the pleasanter if it so happens that we DO
meet," Madame de Vionnet had further observed in reference to Mrs.
Pocock's mention of her initiated state; and she had immediately added
that, after all, her hostess couldn't be in need with the good offices
of Mr. Strether so close at hand. "It's he, I gather, who has learnt
to know his Paris, and to love it, better than any one ever before in
so short a time; so that between him and your brother, when it comes to
the point, how can you possibly want for good guidance? The great
thing, Mr. Strether will show you," she smiled, "is just to let one's
self go."

"Oh I've not let myself go very far," Strether answered, feeling quite
as if he had been called upon to hint to Mrs. Pocock how Parisians
could talk. "I'm only afraid of showing I haven't let myself go far
enough. I've taken a good deal of time, but I must quite have had the
air of not budging from one spot." He looked at Sarah in a manner that
he thought she might take as engaging, and he made, under Madame de
Vionnet's protection, as it were, his first personal point. "What has
really happened has been that, all the while, I've done what I came out
for."

Yet it only at first gave Madame de Vionnet a chance immediately to
take him up. "You've renewed acquaintance with your friend--you've
learnt to know him again." She spoke with such cheerful helpfulness
that they might, in a common cause, have been calling together and
pledged to mutual aid.

Waymarsh, at this, as if he had been in question, straightway turned
from the window. "Oh yes, Countess--he has renewed acquaintance with
ME, and he HAS, I guess, learnt something about me, though I don't know
how much he has liked it. It's for Strether himself to say whether he
has felt it justifies his course."

"Oh but YOU," said the Countess gaily, "are not in the least what he
came out for--is he really, Strether? and I hadn't you at all in my
mind. I was thinking of Mr. Newsome, of whom we think so much and with
whom, precisely, Mrs. Pocock has given herself the opportunity to take
up threads. What a pleasure for you both!" Madame de Vionnet, with her
eyes on Sarah, bravely continued.

Mrs. Pocock met her handsomely, but Strether quickly saw she meant to
accept no version of her movements or plans from any other lips. She
required no patronage and no support, which were but other names for a
false position; she would show in her own way what she chose