Made her all the more effectually that she could see you didn't
set about it on purpose--I mean set about affecting her as with fear."
Chad cast a pleasant backward glance over his possibilities of
motive. "I've only wanted to be kind and friendly, to be decent
and attentive--and I still only want to be."
Strether smiled at his comfortable clearness. "Well, there can
certainly be no way for it better than by my taking the onus. It
reduces your personal friction and your personal offence to almost
nothing."
Ah but Chad, with his completer conception of the friendly, wouldn't
quite have this! They had remained on the balcony, where, after their
day of great and premature heat, the midnight air was delicious;
and they leaned back in turn against the balustrade, all in harmony with
the chairs and the flower-pots, the cigarettes and the starlight.
"The onus isn't REALLY yours--after our agreeing so to wait together
and judge together. That was all my answer to Sally," Chad pursued--
"that we have been, that we are, just judging together."
"I'm not afraid of the burden," Strether explained; "I haven't
come in the least that you should take it off me. I've come very
much, it seems to me, to double up my fore legs in the manner of
the camel when he gets down on his knees to make his back convenient.
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