" He abounded in
the sense of his appeal to the ladies, and they might take their
choice of his doing so from humility or from pride. "Yet she
inclines to believe I shall come out."
"Oh I incline to believe too you'll come out!"--Miss Barrace, with
her laugh, was not to be behind. "Only the question's about WHERE,
isn't it? However," she happily continued, "if it's anywhere at
all it must be very far on, mustn't it? To do us justice, I
think, you know," she laughed, "we do, among us all, want you
rather far on. Yes, yes," she repeated in her quick droll way;
"we want you very, VERY far on!" After which she wished to know
why he had thought it better Maria shouldn't be present.
"Oh," he replied, "it was really her own idea. I should have
wished it. But she dreads responsibility."
"And isn't that a new thing for her?"
"To dread it? No doubt--no doubt. But her nerve has given way."
Miss Barrace looked at him a moment. "She has too much at stake."
Then less gravely: "Mine, luckily for me, holds out."
"Luckily for me too"--Strether came back to that. "My own isn't
so firm, MY appetite for responsibility isn't so sharp, as that I
haven't felt the very principle of this occasion to be 'the more
the merrier.
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