He wants in short his
own personal impression, and he'll get it--strong. But as soon as
he has got it Mamie won't suffer."
"Oh Mamie mustn't SUFFER!" Madame de Vionnet soothingly emphasised.
But Strether could reassure her. "Don't fear. As soon as he has
done with Jim, Jim will fall to me. And then you'll see."
It was as if in a moment she saw already; yet she still waited.
Then "Is she really quite charming?" she asked.
He had got up with his last words and gathered in his hat and gloves.
"I don't know; I'm watching. I'm studying the case, as it were--
and I dare say I shall be able to tell you."
She wondered. "Is it a case?"
"Yes--I think so. At any rate I shall see.'
"But haven't you known her before?"
"Yes," he smiled--"but somehow at home she wasn't a case.
She has become one since." It was as if he made it out for himself.
"She has become one here."
"So very very soon?"
He measured it, laughing. "Not sooner than I did."
"And you became one--?"
"Very very soon. The day I arrived."
Her intelligent eyes showed her thought of it. "Ah but the day you
arrived you met Maria. Whom has Miss Pocock met?"
He paused again, but he brought it out. "Hasn't she met Chad?"
"Certainly--but not for the first time.
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