The moment in fact however passed, giving way to more present
history, and he continued simply to mark his appreciation of the
happy truth. "It's a tremendous comfort to feel how one can trust
him." And then again while for a little she said nothing--as if
after all to HER trust there might be a special limit: "I mean for
making a good show to them."
"Yes," she thoughtfully returned--"but if they shut their eyes
to it!"
Strether for an instant had his own thought. "Well perhaps that
won't matter!"
"You mean because he probably--do what they will--won't like them?"
"Oh 'do what they will'--! They won't do much; especially if Sarah
hasn't more--well, more than one has yet made out--to give."
Madame de Vionnet weighed it. "Ah she has all her grace!" It was a
statement over which, for a little, they could look at each other
sufficiently straight, and though it produced no protest from
Strether the effect was somehow as if he had treated it as a joke.
"She may be persuasive and caressing with him; she may be eloquent
beyond words. She may get hold of him," she wound up--"well, as
neither you nor I have."
"Yes, she MAY"--and now Strether smiled. "But he has spent all his
time each day with Jim.
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