"Let me say then, dear
lady, to back your plea, that Miss Mamie is of the most delightful
kind of all--is charming among the charming."
Even Waymarsh, though with more to produce on the subject, could
get into motion in time. "Yes, Countess, the American girl's a
thing that your country must at least allow ours the privilege to
say we CAN show you. But her full beauty is only for those who know
how to make use of her."
"Ah then," smiled Madame de Vionnet, "that's exactly what I want to
do. I'm sure she has much to teach us."
It was wonderful, but what was scarce less so was that Strether
found himself, by the quick effect of it, moved another way. "Oh
that may be! But don't speak of your own exquisite daughter, you
know, as if she weren't pure perfection. I at least won't take that
from you. Mademoiselle de Vionnet," he explained, in considerable
form, to Mrs. Pocock, "IS pure perfection. Mademoiselle de Vionnet
IS exquisite."
It had been perhaps a little portentous, but "Ah?" Sarah simply
glittered.
Waymarsh himself, for that matter, apparently recognised, in
respect to the facts, the need of a larger justice, and he had with
it an inclination to Sarah. "Miss Jane's strikingly handsome--
in the regular French style.
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