When he had reported on Sarah's visit, which he did very fully,
Chad answered his question with perfect candour. "I positively
referred her to you--told her she must absolutely see you. This was
last night, and it all took place in ten minutes. It was our first
free talk--really the first time she had tackled me. She knew I
also knew what her line had been with yourself; knew moreover how
little you had been doing to make anything difficult for her.
So I spoke for you frankly--assured her you were all at her service.
I assured her I was too," the young man continued; "and I pointed out
how she could perfectly, at any time, have got at me. Her difficulty
has been simply her not finding the moment she fancied."
"Her difficulty," Strether returned, "has been simply that she
finds she's afraid of you. She's not afraid of ME, Sarah, one
little scrap; and it was just because she has seen how I can fidget
when I give my mind to it that she has felt her best chance,
rightly enough to be in making me as uneasy as possible. I think
she's at bottom as pleased to HAVE you put it on me as you yourself
can possibly be to put it."
"But what in the world, my dear man," Chad enquired in objection to
this luminosity, "have I done to make Sally afraid?"
"You've been 'wonderful, wonderful,' as we say--we poor people who
watch the play from the pit; and that's what has, admirably, made
her.
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